The Smell of Gunpowder
by Ryuuko Takahashi
Summary: Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Contains violence, language, and adult content in later chapters. couples IK MS SR KA . First Fanfic. Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

"Where is it? Where is it? I am not traveling all the way to Yukata City without my favorite hairbrush" a young raven haired woman questioned as she tore through her cabinet under her sink. Standing up she walked out of the bathroom into her bedroom and saw another raven haired women taping up boxes.

"Sango, have you seen my green hairbrush with the horse hair bristles?"

The other women looked up at her, "Did you try looking in the cabinet in the bathroom?"

"Yeah I just came from there. Maybe one of the other girls has seen it." She exited the room and headed down the hall as she called out "Ayame, Rin, have either of you seen my green hairbru" she stopped short when she saw a certain red haired women brushing her hair with said hairbrush. "AYAME! Give me my brush, I've been searching everywhere for it!"

"Oh calm down Kags it isn't like I haven't used your stuff before. Here" she tossed the brush to Kagome who caught it quickly and turned at the door heading back to her room to finish what she was doing.

"Geez, if she thinks I will be letting her use my stuff when we get to Yukata, she is in for a rude awakening."

"Kagome!"

Kagome stopped and turned, taking a step back she peered down the hall filled with boxes. "Rin?"

The girl named Rin stuck her hand over a tower of boxes and waved at her, "I'm back here, I finished packing but now all of Ayame's stuff is in my way and I can't get out."

"What is going on now?" Sango questioned coming out of her room.

"I'm stuck behind a wall of boxes. Ayame get out here and move these boxes now before I knock em all over!" Rin jumped up above the boxes for added affect, she was pretty short, only standing 4'8".

"Alright, I'm coming, Sango, Kagome, mind giving me a hand?"

"Yeah yeah, come on Sango" Sango and Kagome moved to help push the boxes to the side of the hall.

"When are the moving guys supposed to be her to collect all this stuff anyway? We are paying them, the least they can do is be here on time!"

Sango looked at her watch. "They are supposed to be here around noon and it is only 10:45. So relax and stop complaining. How much more do you have to pack anyway? You've already got more boxes than us."

"Just my personal affects, but those are already in the bag. I'm just deciding what to wear today for the trip before I completely finish."

"About time Ayame" said Rin as she walked by and smacked Ayame on the arm.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"For being rude and trapping me in my room, I could have died in there you know."

"Oh please Rin, it's not like you couldn't have climbed out the window if you needed to."

"What is all the ruckus up here?" an older women said walking up the stairs to look at all the girls. "I can hear you all clear out in the garden."

"Sorry mama" they all said at once.

Not that she was all of their mother. In fact of all 6 children that had lived with her for the last 23 years only 2 she had actually given birth to, that being Kagome and Sota. The others had become part of her family due to outside forces, but she thought of them all as her children and they all called her "Mama". Sango and Kohaku had come to her when their parents were killed in a car crash. Sango had been 8, as had Kagome at the time, and Kohaku had only been a few months old. She had been pregnant at the time but she took them in with open arms. Sango and Kagome were practically sisters anyway. Rin was actually her niece but due to her father passing away due to illness and her mother picking up a drug habit. She had ended up with him. Mama Higurashi thought about that horrible day, when she had to go to the hospital and pick up a 10 year old Rin from the waiting room because her mother had had an overdose. She had been with them ever since, with her mother's blessing. Ayame was possible the worst of all of them. When they were in Junior high, they had found out that Ayame's parents were abusive and had called the police. When they said they would put her in foster care, Mama would have none of it and adopted her as well. Since then they have all been together as one big happy family. It felt strange to see all of her girls packing up their rooms to all move to a new city, but she knew it was time for them to be out on their own; after all they were all 23 years old.

"Ayame trapped me in my room and I couldn't get out, so I made her move all of her boxes out of the way."

Mama couldn't help but smile at her girl's antics. "Well you are free now, so stop all the arguing" she scolded softly. "How much is left to pack? You all have practically packed the doors and windows to the rooms already."

"I'm finished" Rin said proudly

"So am I" said Sango, "I just have some last minute taping and labeling my boxes."

"I am almost done; all of my boxes are done, just packing my day bag for the trip to Yukata." Kagome chimed in her current status.

"I am done except to decide what to wear for the trip, then I can just seal my last suitcase and be done."

"Alright then, well finish up and come downstairs. The movers will be here soon and we will let the boys help them move the boxes out. Until then, Rin why don't you join me downstairs for a cup of tea before the movers get here?"

"Ok." Rin smiled happily and followed Mama down the stairs.

"I am going to go decide my outfit. I will see you all downstairs in a little bit alright?"

"Alright Ayame. Come on Kagome; let's finish up so we can grab a cup of tea as well before the movers get here."

"Alright" All three girls went their separate ways to finish their last minute packing.

* * *

30 Minutes later all of the girls were sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea with Mama and Gramps while the Boys were playing video games in the living room. They heard a big truck pull into the back of the Shrine and Gramps went out to greet the movers.

"I can't believe we are really moving all the way to Yukata. I am gonna miss this place so much." Kagome said looking at her mother.

Her mother embraced her. "Don't worry, we will be in touch, and it is all part of growing up and being out on your own. Right girls?"

The other girls gathered around Mama and hugged her tightly in a group hug "Right!" they all shared a laugh and saw the movers come walking in and head upstairs.

"Alright then. Boys! Head up and help the movers please. Girls, why don't you go make sure the car is packed and ready to go and be sure you don't have anything else that needs to be done before you go?"

"Alright Mama" Ayame said and headed out to the back to check on their car they were taking. Despite the fact that each girl did have a driver's license, they had managed to get away with only buying 1 large SUV for them to take everywhere. This wasn't that surprising however; they had all gone to the same high school and the local campus of Tokyo University.

"Hey Mama, have you heard anything more from Kaede about the job's she got us all?" Kagome asked.

"Sorry honey, she did call this morning, but it was just to chat with me. Remember now girls, if you do anything wrong in Yukata, Kaede will be on the phone with me immediately telling me about it."

"Oh great, even away from the house we can't have any fun" Sango pouted playfully.

"Oh no, but now we won't be able to invite all of those city men to our new house and enjoy ourselves" Rin said dramatically.

The Girls were laughing amongst themselves when Gramps came back into the kitchen. "The movers wanted me to ask if they were to follow you or go ahead. They have all of the boxes and furniture packed in the truck already."

"Wow" Sango stared down at her watch. "It's only been 30 minutes. That must be a good moving team."

"And they didn't break anything, despite the boys seemingly trying to, I sent them back inside to play rather than help. The rest of it was too big for them anyway. What should I tell the movers?"

Sango reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys giving one of them to Gramps. "Just give that to them and tell them to begin moving the stuff in when they get there. Tell them the living room will be fine, we will unpack it all when we get there anyway. Thanks Grandpa."

Gramps looked at Sango slightly annoyed. "You know I prefer Gramps to Grandpa, makes me sound younger and hip."

The girls were immediately giggling when they heard that and couldn't stop from exploding into full blown laughter. Gramps huffed out the door grumbling about young people and their lack of respect.

"Alright then girls. It is almost 1, what do you say we have one more family lunch together. I made Miso and Rice. We can reminisce about the old days and afterward you all can get on the road?"

"Sounds good to me Mama."

The movers drove off to Yukata and the whole group sat down to a wonderful meal full of happiness and excitement. The girls were finally leaving home.

"Thank god, finally some peace and quiet around here" Sota whispered to Kohaku.

"I know what you mean, if I hear one more thing about Johnny Depp or another famous boy band, I am going to hurl." Kohaku said in return.

Kagome suddenly sat up from the table. Sango and the other girls followed quickly as well. They all turned their eyes to the boys as the boys gulped loudly and looked at their sisters surrounding them.

"So girls, what do you say to one last group noogie on our little brothers before we leave them on their own for a few months?" Sango asked her fellow sisters.

"Oh, wonderful idea, I call holding Sota's head" Rin called out. The girls suddenly attacked the boys and ripped them from their chairs. Rin holding Sota's head while Kagome gave him a noogie and Ayame holding Kohaku while Sango delivered his noogie.

After their meal together and much laughter and few tears the Girls finally set off towards Yukata.

"How long is this trip Sango?" Ayame asked from the back seat with Rin.

"About 6 hours with good traffic." She gripped the steering wheel and checked her mirrors as she drove.

"I can't wait to get there. It is going to be so much fun. The new sights, the new sounds, the new people. I am so excited." Rin called from the backseat.

Kagome stared out of the window from the passenger seat and enjoyed watching the small city she had grown up in go by.

'This is finally it huh? Us out on our own' Kagome looked at her sisters. Ayame happily playing on her cell phone. Sango tuning the radio to a good station as she drove. Rin reading one of her books. She stared out the window again and smiled. 'Yukata, here we come'.

TBC

* * *

Hope you enjoyed chapter 1. Look for updates soon. Next chapter. The Move into the new house.

Please Review. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

* * *

Chapter 2

* * *

Kagome woke up to new surroundings and began to stretch. 'reminder, don't fall asleep in car if you can help it next time'. She looked to her left and saw Ayame behind the wheel. "How long have I been out?"

"About 2 hours. You fell asleep just after the last pit stop. We are almost there."

Kagome looked out at the city and couldn't help but stare at how much larger all of the buildings were here than in her home town. She looked in the back seat to see Sango curled up on the seat with her head resting on Rin's lap and Rin looking out the rear window with a shocked look on her face. 'probably thinking the same thing I was'. Kagome looked back at Ayame and saw she was listening to the radio. 'It's strange to think the 4 of us, so different, would be so close. I know with all of the bad in our lives. Me losing my dad. Sango losing her parents. Ayame's being complete assholes and even Rin's had problems. Who would have guesses after all the time together that we would be moving in together in the same town and working at the same place? Too bad I don't know what the job is.'

Kagome was brought out of her thoughts by Ayame's hand waving in front of her face. "Yo Kags you in there?"

"Yeah sorry, just thinking about all this. It really is amazing we haven't killed each other by now. We have been through so much together."

"Yeah well. With your mom adopting all of us and all, it is kind of expected I guess. Though I can't believe Kaede found us all Jobs that go with our degrees from Tokyo U. That women is a miracle worker."

Kagome shook her head in agreement as she noticed Sango had come back to this plane of consciousness, though she hadn't removed her head from Rin's lap yet.

"You guys remember Ayame's first game cheerleading?"

Ayame blushed deeply at this as Rin and Kagome giggled quietly. "Yeah I remember it. You were so excited Ayame."

"Well, how was I supposed to know I had to wear those short things under my skirt, I thought everyone was just wearing their underwear." She blushed even darker as the other three girls, Sango now sitting up, burst into another fit of giggles. "Since you brought it up Sango, how about your first Volleyball game, you remember right. The one where Kagome set you up a perfect Spike and you hit the ball right into their coaches' face."

It was Sango's turn to blush this time. "I didn't know my own strength, besides; he shouldn't have been so close to the line, he was practically in the game anyway!"

"Not quite Sango, I remember that game, you hit that ball quite a distance from the line." Kagome began laughing at her own comment.

"You are supposed to back me up on this Kagome. How about at our first Swim Meet where your suit rid up between your butt cheeks and you didn't realize it until you got on the board and bent over to take your dive?" Sango fired back at Kagome, trying to get her in on the joke as well.

"I had forgotten about that until now. Thanks Sango!" Kagome was as red as a tomato and not so happy about that particular embarrassing moment.

"Don't worry Kagome I got your back on this one. Hey Sango, how about at your first Track Meet when you went to push off the blocks they put for you and instead of you going forward your blocks went back?" Ayame not wanting to be outdone fired back at Sango.

"Hey, That was not funny. That really hurt."

"I'll say it did, you went straight down on your face." Rin said to herself. All of the other occupants turned to look at her as she felt their eyes on her. She turned from the window to see them all grinning, even Ayame, who was currently driving the vehicle. "Hey, I didn't have any of those embarrassing moments in high school like you did. I didn't play any sports. I enjoyed the stage and danced." She looked at them triumphantly.

Sango had a sly look on her face before she spoke. "That is true; you didn't have any of those in High School. But at Tokyo U was a completely different story. Hey Ayame, remember when Rin was first doing drawing classes and she had her first nude model. Even though the professor told her not to, she still drew him in the full." Sango grinned widely.

Rin turned 10 shades of red remembering that day. She really hadn't known she wasn't supposed to draw ALL of him. She thought it was for a grade.

Kagome sensing her distress called an end to the game. "Alright girls, let's not get too into this. I think we are close to the house. "As she said this, sure enough the house came into view from a couple blocks away. The moving truck was still outside and it seemed like the movers were still carrying in boxes.

"Well it looks like they are a lot slower at unloading than loading up huh?" Sango joked at the girls.

"Who knows, I fell asleep half way through the drive, and knowing how fast you drive. Were lucky you didn't beat them to the house" Kagome said looking pointedly at Sango.

Sango looked away as they pulled up to the house. As they pulled the car into the driveway at their new house, they couldn't help but stare at it. It was lucky they got a house like this. It wasn't overly large, but more than large enough for their needs. About 2000 square feet. 2 stories. The upstairs had the 4 bedrooms with 2 of the bathrooms. Each set of 2 rooms shared a bathroom. They had agreed that Sango and Kagome would have one set of the bedrooms and share that bath while Ayame and Rin would have the other set and the other bathroom upstairs. The only other bathroom was downstairs and it was decided to be the guest bathroom. Not that any of them planned to be bringing many guests around; especially with the jobs that Kaede had promised them. It had a kitchen, a single car garage, as well as a laundry room, living room area and a den/ dining area as well. Overall it wasn't anything fancy, but it was homely and cute. Exactly what the girls had wanted when Mama had bought the house to begin with.

They all got out of the SUV and proceeded to stretch and yawn. Kagome and Sango walked over to the movers. "Hey guys, how is it going so far?"

"Well we are just finishing with the last few boxes now. Not bad, oh here is your key back" he handed the key to Kagome. "Nice place. Per your Grandfather's instructions we went ahead and set up the beds in each of your rooms we didn't know where the sheets were but we figured you all would take care of that." He then looked over at his men walking out of the front door and giving him a thumbs-up gesture. "Well that is it ladies. Everything is in the living room and waiting for you. Will you be paying us in cash or check?"

"Mama should be covering that, we will be sure to let her know to give you something extra for the extra work. Thanks for setting up the beds, you really didn't have to."

"It's no problem really; we get requests like that all the time. Well, we will get out of your way, have a good night and be safe." He shook Sango's and Kagome's hand while the others were waving goodbye to the other girls.

As the truck drove off Ayame backed the SUV into the garage and they began the long task of unpacking everything that they had brought and trekking it upstairs to all of their rooms.

After all of the unpacking they had found the sheets in a box labeled "Sheets" yet none of them could remember packing that. "Must have been Mama" Rin said to the girls smiling softly. They had all gone and put the sheets on their beds for later that night and then they had all gone around the house moving little things such as tables and lamps, small furniture that they knew where it would go no matter what. After that they had all gone up to the bathrooms and began organizing things. When Sango checked her watch again it was 1130.

"Hey guys, what do you say we call it a night, get some sleep and start again in the morning?"

"Hell yes I am beat." Kagome called from her room. "Dibs on first shower!"

"Darn you Kagome" All of the other girls groaned, and then Rin remembered they had 3 bathrooms.

"I call our bathroom" Rin called out.

"I call the one downstairs!" Ayame called out just before Sango did.

"I hate you all." The other girls made their way to the bathrooms to shower and wash up. Sango decided to head downstairs and check out the backyard, despite the fact it was pretty small and fenced in, she was more than happy to have it. At the Shrine she had always loved being outdoors and playing sports. It wasn't that she didn't like being inside and comfortable, but she loved having some form of nature around her and would do anything to protect it. She walked out the backdoor and onto the back porch, down the steps and onto the freshly cut grass. She remembered hearing about the phone call from Kaede to Mama asking if they would be interested in a job in a high paying business, It wasn't the best job in the world, but it was a great place to start and would put them with some of the greatest minds in the history of Japan. They would begin working Monday morning at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. They had always heard about it growing up. It was owned and run by Inu no Taishou, the founder of the company. In the many years since it had been running, It had developed and created many weapons and defensive technology. Both for human and demon kind. Sango shivered at that thought. This would be all of their first real contact with demons. Sure they had heard of them growing up, but in their town, demons were a rarity. Here in Yukata, it was completely different. Demons flocked here to get work and be around others like themselves. 'I wonder if we will be able to tell them apart from humans, I heard that some of them look just like humans.' The thought disturbed Sango more than she would dare say, not because she was afraid of them, but because she couldn't rely on her eyes alone to tell a human from a demon. She was brought out of her thoughts by Ayame coming out the back door.

"Hey Sango, Kags is out of the shower if you want to go grab yours." She looked down at Sango, who seemed to be deep in thought. "you alright there sis?"

"Yeah, just thinking about how different the city is from our little town we grew up in. I am happy we at least have a tree in our backyard." She looked over at the large Tree that took up a corner of their backyard and looked at it fondly. Suddenly feeling chilly, she hadn't realized how cold it got at night around this town; It was going into Fall after all. They had gotten the phone call from Kaede at the end of July and now, just over a month later they were in the house their Mama had bought for them all without even blinking. Sango smiled at that thought and stood up.

"Well, the city may be different, but different doesn't mean bad right? Plus we just got here, give it a little time, we haven't even explored it yet." Ayame put an arm around her sister and walked her into the house once again. "Now go get your shower and let's get some rest, we have some serious unpacking to do tomorrow if we are going to start work on Monday. Okay?"

"Alright Sis" Sango walked into the house and went upstairs to take her shower.

Around midnight all of the sisters had settles in for bed and shortly had all fallen into deep slumbers of excitement and nervousness about the next several days of their new lives.

* * *

Ayame awoke the next day to sound of working downstairs and the sweet smell of coffee being brewed downstairs. She sat up in bed and stretched. She proceeded to change into a set of grey sweats and a white tank top; she also put her red hair up in a high ponytail. Ayame made her way downstairs and saw her sisters busy in the kitchen. Rin was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt, her black hair was loose and stopped just before her shoulders. Rin turned her chocolate brown eyes onto Ayame's green ones and smiled brightly.

"Morning Sis, I just made coffee so help yourself, Kags and Sango are in the living room moving some of the furniture around and looking into getting their personal affects moved up into their rooms. We decided it would be fair if everyone carried their own boxes to their rooms alright?"

Ayame's smile faltered a little 'why did I have to pack so many boxes again? I'm sure Mama could have kept most of my stuff.' Sigh 'oh well'. "That is fine Rin, and I think I will take that cup of coffee."

"There you go" Rin handed her a fresh cup of coffee made how she liked it. Sugar and no Cream.

Ayame blew lightly on the coffee before thanking Rin again and walking into the living room. She was slightly shocked to see Sango and Kagome had already set up the living room, right down to the throw pillows on the couches and the throw rugs on the floor. Ayame was happy they had hired that cleaning and landscaping companies to come and trim the grass and clean the house the week before they came to move in. It made things a lot easier moving into a freshly cleaned house. "How's it going? Need any help?"

"Oh hey Ayame, good to see you up." Kagome greeted Ayame; she was wearing black shorts and a white tank as well. Her long raven hair pulled into a ponytail. She turned her eyes to Sango who was wearing blue sweats and a black t-shirt with her black hair in a ponytail as well. "Anything else we need to do before we start unpacking our personal stuff?"

"Well we still have to unpack all of the kitchen ware and utensils. Why don't you and Rin take care of that Ayame while Kagome and I focus on getting the boxes upstairs and into each of our rooms to unpack tomorrow?" Sango glanced over at Ayame who had a questioning look on my face.

"Rin said I had to carry that stuff upstairs by myself though. She said you all had decided on it."

Kagome lifted her head up from the box she was currently rummaging through. "We never decided that."

Just then Rin came around the corner holding 3 cups of coffee, one for Kagome, Sango, and one for herself. She looked at Ayame and beamed with delight "gotcha". She grinned wider when all of the girls just looked at her awkwardly. Sometimes she could be really special.

The girls spend the rest of that Saturday morning setting up the house furniture and moving all of the boxes that needed to go upstairs up there. They had set up the living room with their set of vanilla leather couch, love seat, and recliner set as well as a flat screen plasma on the wall. They had also set up their DVD player and the Wii they had for the group. They didn't play a lot of video games, but all of the girls valued staying in shape, plus what is more fun than Wii Bowling right?

The girls had also set up their individual rooms and had begun unpacking their personal affects and clothes into their closets and dressers. Each of their rooms had their beds, dressers, bedside tables, desks and lamps. They each also had their own personal laptops and cell phones that they kept charged in their rooms. Overall at about 3 in the afternoon, they were more or less done.

Kagome came walking down the stairs and saw Sango lounging in the living room with a bottle of water. She went to the kitchen and was happy to see it had been set up like they had wanted. She grabbed a bottle of water and walked into the living room. She plopped down onto the love seat and looked at Sango. "Any more that needs to be unpacked or are we done?"

"We are done with the general stuff." Sango said tiredly. "We just need to go shopping somewhere now and buy all of the necessities for the house. Groceries and toiletries and such."

Ayame walked in stretching lazily. "Well my room is as done as it's gonna get for now." She sat down next to Sango on the couch. She was followed by Rin shortly and she sat down in the recliner and looked at her sisters and roommates.

"Well, we still have a lot of day light left, want to go get cleaned up and go find a local store to buy the things we need.?" They all agreed and headed upstairs to get changed.

30 minutes later they were in the SUV heading down the road. They were pleasantly surprised to find a full shopping center about 10 minutes away from their house. Complete with a Domino's Pizza, as well as a grocery store and other various stores around the vicinity. The girls did their shopping for groceries and such and headed back to their house.

"Well, maybe this place isn't so bad after all; back at home it would have taken us twice as long to get to a store." Rin said happily as she carried stuff in through the garage door into the kitchen.

All of the girls brought in their necessities and put it away. They had decided to get a pizza and have it delivered. The girls surfed the channels until they found a movie on and when the pizza came. They paid the delivery man and enjoyed their first real meal in the house together.

Several hours later, the girls decided to call it a night and retired to their rooms for a good night sleep to relax the next day before their big day Monday morning.

TBC

* * *

That is Chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it. Feel Free to Review. Next Chapter coming soon.


	3. Chapter 3

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

-Special thanks to Warriormaiden60 for being the first person to Review my story, Much thanks for the kind words, I hope I can live up to the expectations-

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

"Ring"

"Ring"

"Ring"

The young man sat up from his laptop and picked up the cell phone. "What?"

"We have a mission tonight, 10 minutes. You're parking garage."

"Got it. Any special requirements?"

"Not as of yet. Bring the usual equipment and we will take it from there."

"Got it. Meet you in the garage."

The line went dead as the young man closed his laptop and stood up from his couch. The young man looked at his watch and sighed seeing it was only 10:30. "It is going to be a long night." The young man walked into his room and begun suiting up. He wore black loose pants with a Hip holster on his right hip and put his 9mm Sig in the holster as well as putting the spare magazines in their holders. "Probably need to take the ankle as well tonight." He grabbed a .38 caliber snub-nose 6 shot Smith&Wesson and strapped it and the holster to his left ankle. He also put his combat knife on his right ankle and put on his black combat vest on over his black long sleeve shirt. He they tied his long silver hair up into a tight pony tail and covered his head with a black baseball cap. On his way out he grabbed his bag of personal affects and his 12 Gauge Benelli M4 Combat Shotgun.

He locked his apartment door and shouldered his bag before heading to the rear stairwell and walking quickly to the garage. When he got there he saw his ride, a black Dodge Ram 2500 and climbed in the passenger side door. "Good to see you Miroku. Any more news on why we have been called in on such a nice night?" He secured his bag and closed the door.

"Sorry Yash, no news as of yet, all I know is that it is straight from Taishou."

"Dad called this mission? Wow, how many people are expected to be there when we get there?"

"As far as I know nothing but the usual."

"Alright, well let's get there and find out."

The dodge tore through the night making good time to the warehouse district of Yukata and pull into a small alleyway. Miroku turned off the truck and Inuyasha and he exited the vehicle, Inuyasha noticing he was wearing his Sig and S&W as well as carrying his M4 Carbine Assault rifle.

They headed towards a black bus and walked up the steps into the back door. Inside they saw Inuyasha's brother Sesshomaru sitting right inside wearing an identical set of clothing except he was wearing his usual set of custom silenced 45 caliber Desert Eagles on his rear and was carrying his custom MP5/10 Submachine gun.

"About time you all got here. Shippo is already in position and has informed us we are in for a hell of a fight tonight. You 2 had better not screw it up."

"Can it Sessh. What are we doing here anyway?"

Sesshomaru looked over at them as if they were children. "Did Koga not brief you when he called?"

Miroku looked at Sesshomaru and answered "No, all he said was get to this address ASAP."

"That reckless idiot. Sometimes I wonder why our father hired him. Alright we are going to be taking out a group that has been trying to crack into our systems for some reason. From what Shippo has told us, they have 6 armed guards out front and 2 in the back. Inside is filled with armed guards, but from his count, there aren't more than 20 in total." He picked up a picture and showed it to them, it was of a man wearing sunglasses that had a long beard. "We believe this is the man running this and we have determined there is a lot of power being used in there; probably from all of the computers. Rules of engagement are simple if they have a gun, kill them. We will sort out the matter later."

"Great, more paperwork for the legal department on Monday, thanks Sessh." Miroku said dryly.

"Where is Koga?" Inuyasha asked looking around.

"I'm out here dog breath." They all heard a voice say from outside.

The three men exited the bus and saw Koga leaning on the bus's tire and checking his set of Tec-9's. He was dressed in the same black clothing except he carried a Custom 6 shot .44 Magnum on his right hip and had various knives and throwing stars situated on his vest, where as the others had ammunition and magazines on theirs.

"I have done the first scout; this should be a simple in and out, providing nothing goes wrong. Shippo is set up on the rooftop and has a clear shot at the 2 rear guards." He looked at Inuyasha and Miroku. "Sorry I didn't fill you in; I was just getting here when I called."

"It's fine, alright then, let's get in position. Sessh, can you get over the wall and radio us when you are inside?"

"Of course little brother, what do you take me for? You?"

"Yeah yeah, bite me asshole. Alright, once he is in position, we will have Shippo take out the 2 rear guards and cover the rear and we will enter through the front. Let's try to keep is quick and simple. Remember, if you can't do it quick, don't do it. Alright are we ready to go?"

The other three men shook their heads as they went to the truck to grab their radios and ear pieces.

* * *

"Check, check on all radio frequencies." Miroku said through his microphone. The others signaled they had heard.

"Check that Miroku" Shippo's voice came over the Radio. "I am in position and waiting for your signal."

Miroku, Inuyasha and Koga walked toward the main gate of the compound and crouched down. "Sessh, confirm when you are in and in position." Inuyasha called over the radio.

"I am in position brother. Setting the locks on the doors now, go ahead and breach, I will meet you inside."

"Alright, pop flash bangs boys, Shippo, when you see the flash, take out those rear guards" Koga and Miroku grabbed a flash bang grenade each and threw it over the gate.

The guards saw the flash and were blinded for a moment, Inuyasha and Koga jumped over the gate and Koga fired at a couple of guards dropping them, Inuyasha took aim with his Shotgun and fired 2 rounds at 2 guards, killing each instantly. Shippo saw the flash and put 1 round in each guard in the rear. "Rear guards taken out."

"Got it Shippo" Miroku said as Koga opened the gate for him to enter and he opened fire at the guards coming out of the warehouse while Inuyasha shot the other 2 guards at the front.

"Inuyasha. The Warehouse is open."

"Alright I will take point, Miroku cover me and Koga, stay out here and watch for any stragglers."

Koga nodded and checked his weapons as Inuyasha and Miroku made their way inside the warehouse; Inuyasha in front and Miroku behind covering him. They made their way through the warehouse killing several guards before coming to a roadblock as 5 guards had a good defensive position and were pinning them down with heavy fire.

"Sessh, we could use a hand here" Inuyasha called over the radio.

"Can't you ever handle these situations little brother? You are truly pathetic." Sesshomaru dropped in behind the 5 guards and dispatched them all with a single round each to the back from his Desert Eagles. "Come brother, the way is clear."

They made their way through the compound and found the Target. "Alright, we have him, he is coming out right now, hold your fire and watch out. Shippo, double back to the bus, we are gonna need to go as soon as we are out of here." As they made their way to the outside, they stopped at the doorway and looked across the courtyard to Koga at the gate, signaling to come on as the Bus was pulling up. "Lets move" they began moving across the courtyard when suddenly a shot was heard and their target dropped dead. "God Dammit, who fired the shot?" The three looked around for the shooter as they dropped their target and moved onto the bus.

Once they were onboard, Inuyasha didn't wait a moment to begin trying to find out who shot their target. "What the hell happened out there?" he looked at Shippo.

"I was already on the bus at that point, it wasn't me." He held up his hands defensively

"Apparently someone didn't want us getting the information that man had." Miroku said as he leaned back in his seat as the bus roared down the highway.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion from the warehouse district and the guys looked back to see the area they were just in flames.

"So much for the cleanup crew coming. Call them off." Sesshomaru said coolly looking out the window and shaking his head. "There goes our last chance of finding out what was going on."

Inuyasha collapsed in his seat and held his head in his hands. "What a fucking night, all of our effort for absolutely nothing. Dad is gonna be so pissed."

"Nothing we can do now little brother" Sesshomaru said as he sat down.

They pulled into a large warehouse where Miroku's truck was parked after being brought here by one of the workers there.

"Come on Yash, I'll take you home. Lets get some sleep and we will meet tomorrow and figure out what is going on in the morning."

"Alright, everyone head home and we will meet up tomorrow afternoon, how about lunch?"

"Fine with me" Koga said as he unloaded his weapons and put them in his bag while removing his vest.

"Alright, call me and let me know where." Shippo said moving to get in his Mazda Miata.

"Fine brother, see you tomorrow." Sesshomaru went back on to the bus.

Inuyasha and Miroku packed up their gear and loaded into the truck, they took off towards home and Miroku dropped Inuyasha off telling him a quick "Goodbye" before driving off. It was obvious to anyone tonight hadn't gone well and none of them wanted to be up longer than needed.

Inuyasha went into his apartment and put his weapons away. He then went and took a long hot shower to relax before settling down to a reckless sleep. He never slept well when missions went badly like this.

* * *

Inuyasha suddenly shot out of bed covered in sweat and breathing hard. "Dammit, again with this." He laid back down slowly and looked over at his clock on his bedside table. "Only 5 huh. Might as well get up, I'll get in a good workout before the meeting with the guys today."

Inuyasha got out of bed and took care of his normal routine before getting into a pair of black sweats and a red wife beater and his black Nike's. He then grabbed his Zune, cell, wallet and keys. He headed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water before heading out the door and heading down for a good run. He put in his ear buds and took off down the street, allowing the music and exercise to take him away.

'I can't believe we had a shooter there the whole time and none of our sensors or security picked him up. Whoever pulled that trigger was obviously only supposed to kill our target, what other explanation is there for him only killing him when he had the chance to take us all out? Then to top it all off, they blow up the damn facility we just raided. How did they even know we were there? I didn't even know we had an operation last night until I got that phone call from Miroku. What are they trying to hide? And just who the hell are they anyway?' He began running harder and broke out in a full sprint trying to run off his frustration at losing a target and having even more questions without answers.

He returned to his apartment some time later just as the sun began to rise over the horizon and headed into his apartment to grab a shower and do some work before his morning appointment with the guys.

* * *

Miroku was driving his Dodge Ram into the Taishou Headquarters building and pulled into his assigned parking space before exiting and heading to the security checkpoint in the garage. He wore a simple set of black jeans and a white t-shirt. After all this meeting was strictly off the books anyway, he might as well be comfortable right? He walked through security, pulling his Sig and letting them verify it was the only gun he was carrying. He then re-holstered it and headed toward the elevator and pushed the 15th floor button, sighing loudly when he heard the chime and saw the doors had closed.

"What a fucking night, I don't even want to think about the amount of paperwork on my desk come Monday morning." The elevator chimed and the doors opened a moment later revealing him into the floor he selected. He walked into the large room and proceeded straight across to the private elevator and slid his identification card in it. It opened and allowed him in. He didn't have to push anything as the elevator doors closed and begun heading up on its own, It did only connect the 15th and 16th floors after all. The doors opened a moment later and he walked out into another larger room and saw Inuyasha and Sesshomaru sitting at a large table in a closed in conference room through the glass windows. He walked over to the door and walker in silently.

"Hey Miroku, how was your night?" Inuyasha asked not looking up from the file he was currently reading, no doubt the report on last night Miroku thought.

"Not the best night, but ill survive, any news on our shooter or just what happened last night."

"Our cleanup crews found an abandoned bolt action sniper rifle at a roof top about 1000 yards from the courtyard, he only had access to the courtyard, but it was more than enough to take out his target. They ran it for evidence and got nothing back. An interesting note was that the bullet casing was still in the gun when we found it. He loaded only 1 bullet and it was only set up for single shot fire." Sesshomaru said not looking up from his file either but taking a drink of his coffee cup.

"That tells us that this guy was a pro, real class act at that." Koga chimed in coming in behind Miroku. He noted Koga and Inuyasha were in similar clothing as him, while Sesshomaru was in his typical tailored suit, though he wasn't wearing his tie this morning.

"It figures we would be dealing with a pro, but the weapon he was using would have been of no use what so ever if we had spotted him." Inuyasha said calmly putting his file down finally.

"That or it means he had a secondary weapon."

"That would be understandable given that the gun was only designed for long range. My biggest question is why didn't he take all of us out as well?" Inuyasha looked around the table as everyone had similar thoughts and concerns about just how close they all really were to being taken out last night.

"We don't know that, hell for all we know this could have been a guy with a grudge against the target, or a hired gun." Koga said loudly and slammed his fist on the table. "Damn I hate not having the answers."

Everyone looked at each other as they heard elevator chime again and knew immediately who it was. They all looked toward the elevator to see Inu no Taishou, the founder of the company and Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father. He walked towards the conference room and sat at the head of the table.

Taishou looked at his sons and nodded his hello, they nodded back towards him, and he then looked at Koga and Miroku and repeated the action as they did as well. "Alright, Report. Just what happened last night?"

The men relayed what they had seen and each told what they could remember as well as presenting the file to Taishou and allowing him to read it while they drank their coffee and discussed small things among themselves. Inu no Taishou suddenly closed the file and looked around at the room with anger evident in his eyes.

"How in the hell did this guy get past our security forces? Koga, It is your job to check these kind of things. Were you trying to get yourself and everyone on that team killed!"

Koga kept his head down low and accepted the criticism, knowing it was better to take it, he knew he had screwed up. He was the Director of Security after all, he was supposed to handle these kinds of things.

"It wasn't just his fault. Even Shippo didn't see this guy. Whoever he was, he knew our methods and how we run things. Our typical perimeter of setup is between 600 and 800 yards, he was well outside that and armed with a weapon capable of making that shot no matter what."

Inu no Taishou looked at his oldest son at this statement and thought for a moment.

"The mission last night was compromised somehow. Have all of your apartments and electronics swept for bugs and cleaned out. Sweep all the equipment from last night as well. We need to find out who is behind this and do it now!" Inu no Taishou slammed his fists down to emphasize this.

"Alright father, the arrangements will be made immediately."

"I think there is more to this than that though. We still don't know what the target was supposed to be hacking from our network as of yet. Were there any leads from the cyber division yet?"

"Only one so far" Koga looked at his file he had brought for a moment. "The Virus that was being used to try and crack the firewall was very new and capable of penetrating very far into the system before our systems took it out, however, despite that access, it was still looking for something deeper. Whatever they were looking for, it was something with a lot of security and they didn't want anyone to know what."

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru looked at each other and then to Taishou. Taishou nodded his head. "Project Shikon."

The men then looked around at each other and decided to end the meeting until after they had been swept for bugs. The men then said their goodbye's and left the conference room. Inuyasha and Miroku decided to meet up for lunch and headed to the 2nd floor. Koga decided to join them and Sesshomaru said he would be down as soon as he went to see Kaede.

* * *

Inuyasha, Koga, and Miroku sat at their usual table in the private section of their in house restaurant called "Taishou Towers Restaurant". They each ordered their drinks and began looking through the menu deciding to wait for Sesshomaru before they ordered their food.

"So what sounds good to you guys?" Miroku said looking over his menu.

"I think I will have the Hibachi Chicken in Teriyaki." Inuyasha said looking up from his menu.

"I think I will have the Steak and Shrimp." Said Koga. He had always been the true carnivore of the group.

"The Mandarin chicken Salad looks good to me" Miroku said looking up from his menu.

"Screw the rabbit food Roku, you need to eat some more meat and build up your protein intake." Koga said flexing his arms.

"Oh please you mangy wolf, we all know you couldn't beat Miroku if you tried."

"Oh yeah? I bet I can whoop you dog breath." Koga said moving to stand up.

"Knock it off children." Sesshomaru said approaching the table. "We don't need another fight destroying the table."

Inuyasha say back in his chair and grinned towards Koga, showing his fangs. Koga returned the sentiment and Inuyasha grinned wider.

"So did you all hear we have some new people coming in tomorrow?" Miroku said trying to ease the tension.

"Yes I did, Kaede said she would be showing them around tomorrow. According to her they are 4 girls from the country that are new to the city."

"Sounds good to me, some fresh meat around here. God only knows how much I enjoy hanging around you assholes all the time." Koga said signaling for the waiter.

The waiter came over and took their orders, with Sesshomaru ordering the Largest steak and chicken combination they offered before informing the waiter to tell the cook who they were cooking for and to provide appropriately. The waiter left a moment later.

"So Sessh, how goes the Tokijin project, any progress with controlling the aura around it yet?"

"None that you need to be concerned with, why don't you focus on the human weapons and I will focus on the demon ones. That is what we are paid for after all."

"Well while you two are enjoying yourselves making weapons, I will probably be in court dealing with the police over what happened last night. This week is gonna be so much fun. "Miroku said dryly.

"Well, everything will be fine in the long run Roku." Inuyasha said to himself taking a drink of his Budweiser.

Miroku raised his as well and toasted to the shitty week ahead. "At least we will have some pretty new girls to harass."

"Oh yeah man. I can't wait to see the new meat." Koga said enthusiastically.

"Why do I associate myself with such immature children?" Sesshomaru said dryly, taking a drink of his Merlot he was currently enjoying.

"Oh shut it guys. I am the one who is gonna have to do some serious adjustments to our security this week. What happened last night can't happen again. If it does, Taishou will have my nuts on a platter."

"Yeah, he did seem pretty upset about what happened."

"Well, we still don't know what is going on; it's understandable that father would be concerned."

"Your right Roku, It is gonna be one hell of a week." Inuyasha said finally sighing deeply and downing the rest of his beer before signaling for another one.

Suddenly several waiters came out with a meal in each hand. Inuyasha's Hibachi chicken was a giant bowl of Rice and chicken covered in sauce, Koga had a massive steak and a seperate plate of fresh shrimp with a large order of side dishes. Sesshomaru's was similar to Koga's, except instead of shrimp he had chicken, and Miroku's Salad was the smallest, though it was a rather large salad. They ate in silence, only making small talk when needed and generally trying to keep to themselves. After they concluded their meal, they all went their separate ways to rest up for Monday morning.

* * *

"Where is my damn money lady?" a tall and lanky man yelled at a young woman with a black hair and a feather in her hair. "I took out the guy from the picture, now I want my fucking money!"

Kagura slowly stood up from her seat and signaled him to follow her. "Your money is this way."

"About damn time." The men followed Kagura into a large office with a desk in the back and the chair turned facing out of the window.

"Sir, Rogue has requested his money for the killing of our target." Kagura said calmly to the man behind the desk.

"You did wonderful work Rogue, we were hoping you would stay on and take more jobs from us, but if you are sure you want to terminate your contract, we can do that."

"I just want my damn money, I will worry about other contracts later."

"Alright then, Kagura give him the money." Kagura moved away from the man to a small room and asked him to follow behind.

Rogue moved over towards the room and opened it up to see a room full of cash, jewels, and various other forms of money. His mouth began watering at the thought of what he was going to do with it.

"Rogue, before you go, please accept this gift." As the man at the desk said this Rogue turned around and suddenly felt a pain in his abdomen as he looked down and saw a blade sticking out of his stomach, he reached for his sidearm and suddenly felt more pain as his hand was cut off.

"Damn you, I thought we had a deal."

"I don't make deals with worthless men like you." The man behind the desk said. "Hiten, Manten, Finish him off and get rid of his body. You did do an excellent job Rogue, now die."

The last thing Rogue felt was a knife digging into the front of his throat. Hiten and Manten began removing the body and Kagura came out of the room and looked at the desk.

"Naraku, we left no evidence behind and they still don't know who was financing them."

"Good Kagura, you have done well. Tell Hiten and Manten to make it look like one of our enemies hired him to take the shot. How much progress did they make in breaking through their firewall?"

"Not as much as we wanted, they did determine that the file we were looking for is hidden very well and that it will take a lot more than just 1 hacker to crack it. We may need to look into getting a team to do this."

"Very well, bring me a list of names and prices. You may leave now."Naraku waved his hand dismissively and Kagura bowed before exiting.

"So the Taishou's still don't know what I am after. I doubt that, Taishou is no fool, he has figured out what I want, but I doubt he knows which company it was. There are several other companies looking to get their hands on that." Naraku stared out the window in the dark and took in the city around him. "One way or the other, whether I have to turn this city inside out and kill every human and demon here, I will possess that Jewel."

TBC

* * *

That is Chapter 3, Look for Chapter 4 soon, The long awaited first day for the Girls.


	4. Chapter 4

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

* * *

Sorry about it taking some time to Update, The holiday seasons and Finals are taking their toll on me. So everyone knows, I will be trying to post up at least 1 chapter of this story each week.

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

Kagome awoke Monday morning to the sound of her alarm clock going off signaling her it was 6 AM. She sat up and stretched. 'What a beautiful day, I am so excited, it's the first day of my new job.' She got out of bed and after completing her normal morning routine, headed down stairs to see if anyone else was up.

She entered the kitchen to see Sango, still wearing her sleep shorts and shirt making coffee.

"Morning "

"Morning Kagome, how did you sleep?"

"Great, how about you?"

"I can't complain, it is still interesting waking up in my own room though, I am used to waking up and seeing you sleeping" Sango said laughing.

"Well that is what happens when you live together in the same room for so many years. Anything from Rin and Ayame yet?"

"Not yet, I think they are still sleeping."

"No, I'm out of bed, is the coffee ready yet?" Rin said walking into the kitchen wearing her night gown and running her hand through her hair. Sometimes Kagome couldn't understand how she could keep her hair so long. Sango and hers were just past their shoulders, but Rin's was down to the small of her back.

"It is almost ready, why don't you get the breakfast stuff out and we will start making a good breakfast for us all, hey Kagome, what time do we have to be at the Taishou Building this morning?"

"We have to be there around 9 to meet with Kaede."

"Alright, well, Rin, why don't you and I start on breakfast and Kagome, why don't you go get Ayame up and you 2 can get your showers first, then Rin and I will go take ours and have breakfast together afterward?"

"Sounds good to me, how does, eggs, waffles and bacon sound to everyone?" Rin said from behind the fridge door.

"It sounds like heaven to me, you 2 get started on it and I will get Ayame up. I'll be back down after my shower." Kagome left the kitchen and bounded up stairs to wake up Ayame. She came to Ayame's door and knocked on it lightly before opening it. She heard snoring and had no doubt her sister was still out cold. She went to the bathroom and ran some cold water over her hands as well as holding a small pool in her hands before making her way back to Ayame's room. She tiptoed over to her sister slowly and stopped when she was standing with her hands right over Ayame's head. "Wake up sleeping beauty" Kagome said lightly before turning her hands over and bringing them down to Ayame's unsuspecting face.

Ayame shrieked at the cold sensation on her face and shot out of bed. She looked over at her sister to see Kagome holding her sides and laughing. "That was not funny Kagome." She hit Kagome with a pillow before getting out of bed and stretching "What time is it?"

"It is just after 6, the others are making breakfast, they said we need to take our showers first then come down and take over breakfast so they can take their showers and we can all get ready and get to work on time."

"Alright, well ill go get my shower then. By the way, I will get you back for that." Ayame's eyes narrowed slightly as she said this. She looked away and began getting her things for her shower ready.

"Whatever you say sis." Kagome said before exiting her sister's room and heading to her own, she grabbed fresh clothing and headed into the bathroom. She began taking off her clothing and turned the water on, checking the temperature before finishing getting fully undressed and stepping in the shower. She felt the warm water running over her and relaxed into it, allowing it to soothe her sore muscles from the move. 'Who would have thought moving would have been such an ordeal? But at least we are all here and together' She began soaping herself up and continued to think of the move. 'I wonder what I should wear today, Kaede hasn't even told us just what our jobs are yet, oh well I will just wing it and hope for the best, at least I have plenty of new clothes to choose from' she thought happily. Her and her sisters had spent yesterday at the mall shopping for new professional clothing as well as other small things. Her mother had given them a rather large amount of money to jump start their move and to allow them the financial freedom, for the first few weeks anyway, to enjoy themselves until they got used to the city.

Kagome finished washing herself off and then washed her hair and shaved. By the time she got out, she felt a million times better and clean as a whistle. She dried off and put on a simple set of sweats and a t-shirt for Breakfast, they would all take the time to get really dressed after the meal.

Kagome headed downstairs to see Sango finishing up with the bacon and Rin working with the waffle maker, there would be plenty to eat for breakfast this morning. "Hey ladies, everything smells wonderful."

"Thanks Kag's why don't you start cooking the eggs, we all want scrambled, just make about 8 of them and that will do fine." Sango said while she removed the frying pan and scraped some of the bacon grease off of it before putting it in the sink. She then washed her hands and headed past Kagome upstairs to take her shower.

Kagome went to the fridge and got out a carton of eggs and walked back to the counter and stove, she set to work breaking the eggs and beating them up before she began cooking them.

"Are you excited for our new jobs today Kagome?" Rin said looking up from the waffle maker.

"I am nervous as hell but I can't wait." As She said this Ayame came down and took over cooking the rest of the waffles for Rin so she could go take her shower.

Kagome finished cooking the eggs and put them on a big plate at the table, Ayame placed the plate of waffles and bacon on the table as well as setting out 4 plates and silverware. Kagome pulled the pitcher of Tea from the fridge and put it on the table as well as a glass for everyone.

She heard her sisters coming down the stairs and they all sat down and ate the wonderful meal until they were all satisfied. Afterward they all went upstairs to get ready for work.

* * *

Kagome came down about 30 minutes later wearing a black skirt and red blouse and a black suit coat over that as well as a set of basic black heels. Her hair was let down and flowing and she had just enough makeup to accent her natural features. She looked at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and called up the stairs "Girls, its 8:15, we better get going if we are gonna get there on time." If there was one thing Kagome truly hated, it was being anywhere late.

"Alright, I'm coming" Sango said coming down the stairs. She was dressed in a black suit, complete with slacks and a jacket, as well as a white shirt underneath. She looked over at Kagome and noticed her apparel. "Nice outfit, if these don't impress our new boss, I don't know what will."

"Thanks Sango, you look good as well. Come on guys hurry up!" Kagome called up the stairs as Rin bounded down the stairs, wearing a cream colored dress that hugged her a little too much but looked very nice. Her hair was tied up in a pony tail.

Kagome and Sango looked her over with an approving look as Ayame came down the stairs and joined them. "I'm sorry, but you rush perfection ladies." Ayame said as she whipped her hair at them showing off. She wore a blue skirt that ended just before her knees and a white blouse. "We ready to go?"

"Yeah let's go, lock up the house before we go." Sango said grabbing her keys and pocketing them

"Alright, shotgun!" Kagome called heading out the door. She knew one thing without a doubt, either Sango or Ayame would be driving.

* * *

They all loaded up in the SUV, Ayame driving like she predicted and headed into the city. Kagome couldn't help but look at all the tall buildings they were passing. This city seemed like such a big place to her, yet when you got in here, it seemed like you couldn't go anywhere away from it. About 20 Minutes later they pulled up in front of a large skyscraper that read "Taishou Tower".

"Well girls, this is it, you all ready to meet our new boss?" Kagome said happily exiting the SUV and closing her door.

"Oh yeah, though I am nervous. What if they don't like us Kagome?" Rin said looking up at her.

"Don't worry, they will love us Rin, you especially." Kagome said and began walking towards the building.

"It's so big, I wonder where we will be working anyway?" Sango said

"Probably in one of the cubicles or something, you know like on the movies and television?" Ayame said as they kept walking.

"Who knows? As long as I get to work and prove myself, what else do we need right?" Kagome said.

"Right" they all said in unison.

Kagome and the others entered the main lobby and walked up to the main desk in the center.

"Kagome Higurashi checking in, we have a meeting with Kaede Baba." Kagome said looking to the Security Guard behind the desk.

"One moment please" The guard said and picked up the phone. "Yes, front desk here, we have 4 girls who say they have a meeting with Miss Kaede. Alright, I'll let them know. Thank you." The guard hung up the phone and looked at the girls. "Miss Kaede says she will be down shortly, if you 4 will just take a seat over there, she will be with you in a moment."

"Thank you" Kagome said as the other girls and she walked over to the chairs he had pointed to and sat down. "This place is huge, I wonder how many floors it has on it?" Kagome said to Ayame.

"From what I read it has something like 20. But I don't remember exactly. " Ayame said.

"All I know is that there are a lot of good looking guys around here" Rin said as she looked out the window seeing several men walking in the building. The other girls quickly agreed and began scoping out guys quietly, trying not to laugh too loudly.

"He is really cute" Sango said pointing to a guy in the distance.

"Yeah, but that guy has a really nice ass" Ayame said pointing to a guy near him.

"Aye, they both are good looking young men ladies. I do hope that is not how you plan to spend your time working here" They heard a voice say behind them.

Kagome stood immediately and looked at the elderly women standing before them. "Keade!" She said happily and hugged her. "I haven't seen you in such a long time, how have you been?"

"Fine dear child" Kaede said smiling lightly. "It's good to see yee girls again, if you will follow me, we will get you all checked in and I'll give you a tour of the building." Kaede said signaling the girls to follow her. She walked up to the Security Desk and retrieved 4 passes for the girls, giving one to each of them and she began to give them a tour of the building.

* * *

Kagome couldn't believe how many different departments there were and just how different each was. Kaede explained that there were 20 floors in total, 16 above ground and 4 below ground. The 1st through 15th floor were accessible through the main elevator and the top floor was only accessible through a special security card that very few people in the building had, according to Kaede, less than 10. The top floor was accessible through a special elevator on the 15th floor and the 4 basement levels were accessible through the 1st floor. She went on to explain the 2nd floor consisted of a very high class restaurant that served almost anything someone could want to eat. The 3rd through 11th floor consisted of the main labor force of the building, including the Legal Department, The Security Departments, Financial, Commercial, Advertising, and a variety of others. It also included a Gym on floor 7. The Basements consisted of the Weapons Development, which were split up into 2 sections. Human Weapons and Demon Weapons. Both departments were independent of each other and made very different weaponry. Kaede also informed them they had offices on the higher floors for research and such, but the actual weapons were kept in the basement. The 12th floor of the building was a high security floor that required special clearance and housed the central computer database of the building, as well as what Kaede called the "Cyber Division", which Kagome had no clue what it was. She explained the 13th and 14th floors were high executives that worked closely with the directors and that the 15th floor was the Directors Floor, housing the primary 4 directors that ran the building. By Noon, Kaede had showed them the majority of the building, accept the top 2 floors and the basement levels.

"Well ladies, what do you say we get a bit of lunch before we continue ey?" Kaede said leading them into the Restaurant.

The girls and Kaede were seated and ordered their drinks. Kagome looked over the menu and was surprised to see there were no prices next to the food items.

"Um Kaede, how do we know how much this food costs, there aren't prices next to it?"

"Aye child, don't worry, I will cover this meal, just order what you like." Kaede said smiling.

"But Kaede we don't want to impose on you." Rin said looking at her.

"Don't worry child, I am used to these prices, I will just put it as a business lunch." Kaede said laughing.

The girls looked at each other nervously but dropped the subject, instead ordering their food when the waiter came. They talked idle among themselves before a man wearing a dark suit with black short hair approached Kaede.

"Hello Miss Kaede, how are you doing today?" The man said smiling at Kaede and then the girls. "And who are all of these lovely girls?"

"Hello Miroku, these are the new girls I told you about, this is Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame" She said introducing each one individually.

"Pleasure to meet you all, how have you enjoyed your first day here?" Miroku said looking at all the girls.

"We have been enjoying ourselves, the building is so large though, I can't believe how much walking there is here." Kagome said

"Yes, you definitely stay in shape. Well, I must be getting back to work, it was nice to meet you all, and I hope to see you all around later on." Miroku said looking at Kaede. "I will give you a call later on about setting up a meeting." He waved to them again and then left the restaurant.

"He seems nice, who is he Kaede" Sango said

"That is Miroku Houshi, he is the Director of the Legal Department."

"That is a director? He looks so young." Rin said shocked.

"Aye, he is young, but he has talent, that is what got him where he is." Kaede said looking at them.

Their food came and they enjoyed a nice meal. After the meal Kaede went up to pay the bill and was shocked to find that Miroku has already payed it.

"Well, someone is showing off today, he must have wanted to make a good impression on you girls" Kaede said.

"That was nice of him." Ayame said.

The girls then followed Kaede to the first floor and back behind the security desk to a set of doors, she swiped her card in the card reader and it opened. They got on and she pushed the bottom floor button. When the doors opened again, they were in a large room with what looked like small bowling lanes on it.

"Welcome to our Gun Range. Feel free to use it whenever you like. Go ahead and look around, I must go speak to someone for a moment." Kaede said as she walked over to a man behind a counter that seemed to be covered in guns of every kind.

"This place is huge. I wonder what kind of guns they will let you fire here?" Sango said looking around.

"Well based on all the people firing here, id say anything short of a grenade launcher." Ayame said looking around.

Kagome walked forward to look down at the range and saw a man with a helmet covering his head with long silved hair flowing down from his head. She watched him firing his handgun and was shocked at how close his shots were together. Could someone really be that good with a gun? She had never fired one herself, but from what she had heard and learned growing up, it could be quite an experience. He turned around and looked through the glass before returning to his target and proceeded to put several more shots right where the person's heart would be. 'Wow, he is really good'.

"Hey Kag's you ok? Whoa, what a hunk!" Ayame said looking down at him

"Yeah, he sure is, I wonder who he is? Probably another worker down here. Or a member of the security force." Kagome said thoughtfully

"Alright girls, are you ready to go?" Kaede said near the elevator.

"Yes Kaede" Kagome said as they made their way to her. The girls entered the elevator and made their way back up through the building. Finally Kaede showed them to the 15th floor. They exited the elevator and Kagome gasped loudly. "This place is gorgeous" She said looking around. There were ancient weapons from what looked like thousands of years along the walls, there were 4 large doors that Kagome suspected were the offices of the Directors that worked here, On top of each was a plaque. Each said Director of something. Kagome noticed 4 large desks in the office with what looked like brand new equipment and new computers. Just as she noticed them, they heard a chime from the end of the room. A young man with Red hair wearing a blue suit stepped out of the elevator and walked towards them.

"Hello Kaede. How is your day going?" The young man said.

"Fine Shippo, fine. These are the new girls I was telling you about, Girls, this is Shippo Kits."

"Hello, I'm Kagome Higurashi" Kagome said extending her hand to him.

He accepted it and shook the others hands when the introduced themselves.

"Well, I just came from the Boss, and he is waiting for them as we speak, I will send for the other, go ahead and take em on up Miss Kaede" The boy called Shippo said.

"Thank you Shippo. Come girls" Kaede signaled them to follow them as they waved goodbye to Shippo and followed her into the elevator. Kagome noticed there were no buttons on the wall.

'Well, when it is between only 2 floors, not like you need one' she thought. When the doors opened again, Kagome gasped again. The entire room seemed to be nothing but a large big room, similar to a Ball room, there was what looked like a large glassed in conference room in one section and a large set of doors on the other side, she could only guess that was the owner of the company's office. Kaede led them to the center of the room and sat them down in chairs next to a desk. She then walked over to the set of doors and knocked gently.

"Come" They heard a voice say from behind the door. Kaede opened the door and stepped inside.

"This place is huge, why would someone need an office this big? And I wonder whose desk this is anyway?" Kagome said to her sisters.

"I don't know Kagome, but this place is certainly big, I wonder how much it costs to build all this?"

"Probably a lot based on all the antiques they have here" Rin said looking at the antique sets of samurai armor lining the entrance way past the elevator.

"Actually, it only cost me a small fortune to get this place the way I wanted it" They heard a masculine voice say. They looked to the office doors and say Kaede and a tall man standing next to her, he had long silver hair as well and seemed very strong, just from looking at him, Kagome got the chills. There was something about him that said not to cross him.

"Girls, this is Inu no Taishou, the Owner and Chairman of Taishou Defense. Please introduce yourselves." Kaede said looking at the girls.

The girls approached them and began extending their hands to him while introducing themselves.

"Sango Taijiya"

"Rin Higurashi"

"Kagome Higurashi"

"Ayame Moon"

"A pleasure to meet you all, why don't you follow me into the conference room and we will discuss your new position with this company." He said signaling them to follow him.

They entered the Conference room and sat around the table. It was large and consisted of about 12 chairs, 5 on the sides and 1 on the head and 1 at the end. The girls each took one of the places at the right side of the table with Kaede sitting right next to him.

They heard a chime and saw people exiting the elevator, when they came into view, they saw the man they met earlier Miroku, Shippo, as well as a tall man with long silver hair and a shorter man with long black hair. They all entered the office and sat on the other side of the table from the girls.

"Shippo, where is Inuyasha?" Taishou asked.

"I called his cell phone sir, he said he was on him way, I am sure he will be here shortly." Shippo said quickly.

"Very well. We shall begin then. Now ladies, has Kaede informed you of just what your jobs here will be?" Taishou said looking at the girls.

Kagome was the first to speak "No sir, not yet at least, she said she would explain once we had met you. We have been anxiously waiting to know actually."

"I see, well, Kaede do you want to tell them or shall I?"

"I will Sir. Well, girls, each of you have been chosen to become part of the integral part of this companies inner family. You were chosen for this for many reasons. The most important one, is that each of you possess the abilities and intelligence to do the job and do it successfully."

Kagome looked at her confused and looked at the other girls. They looked as lost as she did. "Miss Kaede, that doesn't really tell us anything , it just says we have a job, just what is our jobs?"

"Each of you is going to become a trained operative for the Taishou Defense Company. You were chosen once again because of your abilities. Taishou would you like to explain?"

"Certainly Kaede. Girls, look around this room. Tell he what do you see?"

"Several men and women trying to confuse us?" Sango said

Taishou and the man with long black hair began laughing "Not quite, I mean how many humans do you see?"

"10?" Ayame said. The man with the long black hair laughed even harder.

"Koga, do you have something to say?"

"Well actually Taishou, I do, I find it hard to believe that the actual demon out of them cant sense other demons in her presence."

Ayame froze and looked at the man named Koga 'did that guy just call Ayame a demon' Kagome thought.

"Enough of this game, father just tell them" The man with long silver hair said.

"Very well son. Each of you has very special gifts, we are going to teach you to harness them. You Ayame, are a wolf demon, I know that may be somewhat of a shock, but you are. Koga here is one as well" he said gesturing to the man called Koga. "You Kagome are a miko, it means you are a human with spiritual powers. You Sango are a natural human, but your ancestors were what we called 'demon hunters' your name says as much. You Rin, are also of miko energy, though of defensive not offensive. I know this is tough for you to all understand." Taishou said looking at them all.

"We first sensed it when I came down to visit you all since you were still in junior high school, right after Ayame had moved in I believe. I sensed there was something there, so I told your mother about it, we began having meetings occasionally, watching you all and making sure you kept out of trouble. I explained that we could take care of you all. She said that choice would be up to you, but she wanted you all to go to college first. That is why we waited for you all to graduate college. Your mother wanted me to tell you all to forgive her for deceiving you all, and to tell you that this decision is yours in the end. If you do not wish to take this path, we are prepared to set you up in any other department you would like." Kaede said looking at the girls.

Kagome was shocked and in awe. Suddenly a lot of things made sense, why she got vibes from people, and why there were just some people she didn't trust. The fact that she had lived with Ayame and she had been a demon surprised her, she didn't expect them to look like that. She looked at her sisters and they all had similar thoughts. Sango was the first to get her tongue back to speak.

"Why did you wait so long to tell us that? Why didn't Mama just tell us?"

"Because it would have changed your lives, like it is now, she wanted you all to have normal childhoods and go through college without worrying about it. She did what she thought was best for all of you."

Kagome couldn't believe her mom had lived for so many years with that secret. She knew her mother was terrible with secrets, but she kept that one so they didn't have to grow up knowing these things. She couldn't wait to see her mother again, she would hug her until her head popped off.

"Could we have a moment alone to discuss this?" Ayame asked

"Of course" Taishou said and signaled for everyone else to leave.

After they had all left, Kagome looked at her sisters.

"Well, what do you think we should do?" Kagome said.

"I think we should take the jobs. Who knows? It might be kind of fun." Sango said.

"I can't believe I am a demon, oh my god. Why didn't Mama ever tell me?"

"Because she wanted to protect us. She made sure we could have the decision in the end. I think that is what Mama thought was the right thing, we should go for it." Kagome said.

"I agree, I just hope we know what we are getting into, I still don't quite understand what they mean. We need to get them back in here and ask them, but I say we take the jobs." Rin said.

"Then it is agreed, we take the jobs" Kagome said. She walked out to the door and signaled for them to enter. They reentered and sat down in their previous spots. "We have come to a decision, but we have a question before we answer, what exactly does this job entail?"

"Each of you will be assigned to a trained operative for training and they will teach you everything you need to know, as well as attending specialized classes with Kaede individually to master your abilities." The man with long silver hair said.

Just as he said that they heard the elevator chime and saw a man with long silver hair and,'are those dog ears?' Kagome thought, enter the room with an older woman wearing a business suit and an elderly man carrying a large suitcase. The elderly man sat down near the desk while the others walked into the room.

"Sorry I am late, I had to take care of the requests from Kaede, finding just the right gear is important. Hey, aren't you the girl that was checking me out in the gun range?" The man said looking at Kagome before sitting across from her.

Kagome was so embarrassed she began to turn as red as a tomato "I was not checking you out! I was looking at the gun range and I happened to see you on it!" She said with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Whatever you say, so what did I miss?" the man said looking at Taishou.

"Inuyasha, we were just explaining to the new girls their jobs here." Taishou said looking at his son.

"Ah alright, how are you doin, names Inuyasha Taishou pleasure to meet you ladies." He said smirking at Kagome.

'What a jerk!' she thought.

"Alright, lets finish with this. As I was saying, each of you will be paired with an operative for training, and during the day you will be assigned a job in the building to give you a legitimate job title." The tall man with long hair said. "Father, who do you suggest be paired with who?" the man said looking at Taishou

"Well Sesshomaru, I think you shall be paired with Rin. Koga, you with Ayama. Miroku with Sango. And You Inuyasha, shall be paired with Kagome. These are your new secretaries boys, so be nice to them. Girls, if you have any questions or want help, then please ask Kaede for help, she is just a floor above you in my office. She is my secretary during the day while in reality, she is a trained miko and very powerful." He looked at the women in the business suit. "Oh forgive me, girls, this is my wife Izayoi. She is the CEO of the company, feel free to come to her for advice as well."

"Hello girls" she said warmly. Kagome immediately felt warmth from her.

"Alright, well we have agreed to take the jobs." Kagome said

"Wonderful, we will leave you to get better acquainted with your new partners, Shippo, Kaede, leave them alone alright? Let's get to our own jobs."

They then left the conference until it was just Miroku, Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Koga, Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame left. Each stood up and introduced themselves to the girls.

"Sesshomaru Taishou, Director of Demon Weaponry"

"Koga Wolfe, Director of Security"

"Miroku Houshi, Director of Legal"

"Inuyasha Taishou, Director of Human Weapons"

"We have some gifts for you girls for your first day here" Inuyasha said. He signaled outside and the girls turned to see several people standing outside.

The first ones to enter the room were a couple of young looking men, one carrying a briefcase, they placed it in front of Koga and stood behind him.

"This is Ginta and Hakkaku, they are my personal assistants, they have been preparing your security materials to allow you to gain entry and get you into the building." He opened the briefcase and pulled out 4 envelopes, each with their names on it. "These are your security cards, keep them with you everywhere within the building, they are top level 3 clearance, that means you can gain access to all floors except the first basement level, that level is level 4 only. That also means you can gain access to this floor through the private elevator. Present this at the front desk if they bother you, once they know your face, they won't bother you." He closed the briefcase and handed it back to the 2 men before they left.

The next man that came in was a small man that looked like a large raccoon. He carried a briefcase to Miroku.

"This is Hachi, he is my personal assistant." He opened the briefcase and pulled out several documents. "Please sign this form at the bottom" he said handing them each a small set of forms "These are your personal contracts, signing this means that you understand your job standing and will not violate that, it also means you are entitled to your monthly pay and such. These are special contracts I drew up, please sign them, and I have a copy for each of you, they are identical so don't worry about that. This really isn't necessary, but all employs have to be under contract." He said. They signed the contracts and he gave them each a copy and signaled for Hachi to leave.

The next 2 to enter were elderly looking men, one with greenish skin and one that looked like an overgrown bug. The one with green skin walked to Sesshomaru and the other to Inuyasha. Inuyasha signaled his brother to go first. Sesshomaru nodded.

"This is Jaken, my assistant. I have been asked to supply each of you with some form of protection from demon's while you are undergoing training. "He opened his briefcase and pulled out 4 matching bracelets, each had 5 stones forming a star and several symbols on them. "These are the latest in personal defense from a demon, they will activate whenever they feel they are needed, you simple feel the danger and they will activate, they will emit a barrier around you that will defend you until you can get help. These will last roughly 30 minutes at a time and take 24 hours after they are used to fully charge. Use them wisely, and stay out of the dangerous parts of the city without an escort." He said coldly before handing the briefcase to Jaken and giving the bracelets to the girls, they each put them on their right wrists and looked to Inuyasha as Jaken left.

"This is Myoga, like they said, he is my personal assistant. I have been told to supply you girls with defense from humans within the city, these are permanent issue as long as you work here and you will need to get used to wearing them." He took the briefcase and opened it revealing several handguns to the girls. "This is the Glock 9mm. It can be fired from practically anywhere and rarely jams, 12 round magazine, it fires a 9mm round which means it will take one good shot to put almost anyone down, the holsters are included and they also feature a second magazine holder. That will give you a total of 24 rounds with you at anytime. The holster can be traded in later, but for now, is a shoulder holster for each of you. Don't worry about security, everyone in this building is assigned a gun, even Kaede had one. You will begin training with them tomorrow." He pulled out the 4 separate cases and handed one to each of them. "The holsters and magazines are in them." He pulled his Sig from his hip holster and shower them how to load the magazine in the gun and load the rounds in the magazine. "There are also 120 rounds of ammunition in that case. Keep those with you everywhere you go in this city." He finally finished, holstered his gun and signaled Myoga to leave.

"Any questions ladies?" Miroku said.

"Yeah. This isn't some kind of joke right, we aren't gonna get home and you are all gonna call us and say you were all lying to us are you?" Rin said.

"No dear girl, I assure you this is very real." Sesshomaru said looking at her.

"Then I do. Where will we be working exactly?" Ayame said.

"Did you see those 4 new desks on the 15th floor, those are each yours, you are the active secretaries for us during the day, then after the day is over, you will be training with us as well." Koga said.

"Alright, just how much are we getting paid to do this?" Kagome said.

"More than enough. Let's put it this way, you are working like a secretary and getting paid as much as us. I wouldn't complain." Inuyasha said.

"Alright then. I don't have any more questions, When do we need to be here in the morning?" Sango said.

"Be here at 8. We will be here at 9, but tomorrow you need to get used to the place and set up your work areas. If you have any more question ask Kaede tomorrow, she will be here to help you." Miroku said

"Alright." Kagome said finally and stood up. She shook every ones hand and headed out the door to begin heading home. Before she got far a hand caught her arm and she turned to see Inuyasha standing there. "Yes?"

"You were checking me out you know." He stated simply

She looked at him and began to get mad. Just then she heard a loud smacking sound and turned to see Miroku holding the side of his face with Sango fuming.

"PERVERT!, How dare you touch me!" Sango screamed at him.

"That is Miroku for you, such a womanizer" Koga said shaking his head

"Ah it was worth the pain, do excuse me Dear Sango, but your rear is just so perfect, I will try to control myself in the future." He said grinning.

"Why do I work with such fools" Sesshomaru said walking towards the elevator. Rin ran after him.

"Well, this has been quite a day" Ayame said. "Come on Kag's, lets head home before anything else happens. Kagome nodded and walked to the elevator.

They got off on the fifteenth floor and headed to the elevator, they closed the door on it before any of the men could get on.

"Can you believe that guy? He just grabbed my ass, out of the blue what a pervert!" Sango fumed, still red as a beet.

"At least yours isn't a complete jerk, Inuyasha is an asshole. How am I supposed to work with him?" Kagome said.

"I like Sesshomaru, he is really handsome" Rin said happily.

"Koga is hot too, I think I am gonna like it here." Ayame said beaming back to Rin.

"At least you 2 are happy" Sango said gruffly.

* * *

They exited the elevator and headed out the door, they got in the SUV and made their way home. When they got there they spent the rest of the day familiarizing themselves with the layout of the building, given to them with the contract from Miroku, as well as preparing for how they wanted to use their space at the office. Later that night they ate dinner and spent time to themselves thinking about the day.

'What a day' Kagome thought. 'I can't believe all this is happening, but I can't complain, at least I am with my sisters and that is all that matters. But Inuyasha is sure an ass. I hope he isn't like that all the time, he is gorgeous' she blushed thinking how he caught her checking him out in the gun range. 'Alright so I was checking him out, who wouldn't, he is sexy as hell' She layed down in bed and curled up in the blankets. 'Nothing to do not but go to sleep and see how things go in the morning.' She thought happily and drifted off to sleep.

TBC

* * *

Well that is Chapter 4, hope you like it. Look for Chapter 5 to come shortly, like I said, I will be trying for at least a Chapter a week, I am hopeful I can do maybe 2 a week if I am lucky.


	5. Chapter 5

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

Ryuuko - Hey everyone, I know it has been a LONG TIME since I posted here, Sorry to say, life got in the way of what I love to do. I am now in Law School and it is mostly reading and writing, so It has been hard for me to really focus on this, but things are finally easing up and I wanted to get back to writing this story that I love with all of my heart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I will be trying to post as often as I can now, no promises, but I can promise it won't be anywhere close to the wait for this chapter before the next one. At long last, here is Chapter 5.

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

Early the next morning Sesshomaru sat in his estate reviewing files on the "Tokijin" project that he had been so diligently working on for the past 3 months. The Tokijin was to be his crowning accomplishment in terms of Demon Weaponry. The Tokijin by all accounts was the most powerful demonic sword they had ever created, unfortunately, the aura on it was almost pure evil and they needed to find a way to stabilize it. He had been trying to put rings of purifying energy in the handle to stabilize it, unfortunately, all the rings were over powered and destroyed within a few hours. 'Well I guess this is what I get for making the blade out of a truly evil demon.' The blade had been forged by Totosai using an ancient fang of a rare dragon demon. 'I am right here; I know I can stabilize it. What am I missing?'

Sesshomaru leaned back in his chair and looked out the window of his house on the estate. The estate he lived on was pretty large for the city at 120 acres of land, and belonged to his family from a long time ago. His father and mother had moved into the city to be closer to their work and left the house and property to Sesshomaru. The house was rather large, but not large enough to be a mansion, and housed himself and occasionally his family when they would visit. As he stared out the window, he couldn't help but allow a very small smile from gracing his lips at the sunrise over the horizon. 'It looks like it is going to be a nice day. I wonder how the girls are going to take to the training today?' He returned to his laptop and began running more simulations on the Tokijin project to stabilize it. He looked down at the clock on his laptop and saw the time read 6:04. 'Well, I might as well head in, I can do better work there anyway, if I get there early enough I can get downstairs before any of them notice I am there and they will leave me in peace.' It wasn't that Sesshomaru didn't like his brother and his other comrades he worked with; it was that when he was working, he hated interruptions and had been known to threaten death to those that dared to attempt to gain his attention when he was working on something.

"Hmmm. The blade itself needs to be disciplined and for that it will need a strong wielder, based on the power its aura is emitting; it will have the ability to overpower those of weak mind and little to no understanding of demon weaponry. That included demons and humans alike." He rubbed his eyes and sighed heavily. He proceeded to get up and get dressed before grabbing his things and locking up the house. He then jumped into his Black Lamborghini Murcielago and tore down his driveway before pulling onto the street and heading into the city to Taishou Tower. When he got there he pulled into his assigned parking spot and was not surprised to see his brothers Red and Black Suzuki Katana 600. 'Hmm, Inuyasha must not have been in a hurry this morning, he has much faster bikes than this.' Sesshomaru pulled into his spot and grabbed his briefcase before heading inside the building. He swiped his card past the security station and entered the elevator, pushing the 2nd basement level button. When the door opened, he came to a long hallway and took the left door. This floor consisted of his and his brothers personal workshops, where they each developed their weapons for the company. Inuyasha's was on the right, his was on the left. He entered his workshop and placed his briefcase down near the door, knowing he wouldn't need it until he was upstairs. He walked past his assistants Jaken's desk and into his workshop, looking around for a moment at the variety of demon weapons he had created. Everything from defensive aura shields, to swords, to bows and arrows. If there was one thing that could be said about Demon kind, they loved their ancient weapons. Sesshomaru walked past his displays and saw his target, the Tokijin blade, mounted in a black case, he could feel and see the dark aura surrounding the blade. He approached it slowly and stared at it. 'Soon Tokijin, soon I will master you.' Sesshomaru set to work immediately trying to crack the problem with its aura, the whole time feeling Tokijin calling to him. He knew if he didn't figure this out quickly, that sword could become more trouble than it is worth.

* * *

Kagome awoke early the next morning and headed downstairs, not surprised to see Rin and Sango sitting around the table drinking coffee and looking over their contracts Miroku had given them.

"Morning girls, what's up?" Kagome said pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Nothing much, just reading over this contract. Kagome I have to tell you, we are getting paid a lot of money. More than I thought possible." Sango said drinking her coffee and never taking her eyes off of the paper.

"That's an understatement; our starting checks combined are gonna be enough to set Mama and Gramps up for life. Kagome, I don't know what we did to get these jobs, or what divine power gave us them, but the one thing we will never want for again is money" Rin said putting her contract down. "Though we will have to work for it, according to these contracts, we will be acting as their secretaries during the day, between 9 and 3, and then spending the next 2 hours each day training with them, it also states that as soon as we have been licensed and fully trained, we will be given new contracts."

"Yeah, she is right; these contracts have a time limit of 2 years. After that we have to sign another contract, but in that time period, we should be completely trained. It also says that we upon the completion of these contracts, we are entitled and will be awarded an incredible amount of money. Kagome. Miroku may be a pervert, but he really is good when it comes to writing contracts, everything is covered, the money, our jobs, and the ways we can get out, everything." Sango said finally putting the contract down.

"Get out? What do you mean, like quit the jobs?" Kagome said looking confused; she had briefly read over her contract last night and didn't remember getting that far into it.

"Yeah, there is a clause in the contract that says we are allowed complete release from this contract upon our request to do so. However, it also says that if we violate the privacy and security agreement, we will be terminated from our position." Sango said.

"It just means we can't tell any news reporter about it or sell secrets, basically all the illegal stuff anyway" Rin said.

Kagome nodded in agreement and drank her coffee quietly. "When do we have to be there today? 8 wasn't it?"

"Yeah, we have to go and set up our stuff at our desks. Guess that means we better get dressed and head out then" Rin said. She looked towards the stairs and saw Ayame walking down the stairs already dressed in a pink and green business suit. She wore her hair down and they could see she was wearing the bracelet Sesshomaru gave them yesterday. "Ayame, we figured you were still sleeping. Why are you ready to go so early?"

"I wanted an early start, I figure the sooner we get there, the sooner we get to see that sexy wolf Koga." Ayame said grinning.

"In other words, she has a huge crush on Koga."

"He is dead sexy, don't act like you all didn't recognize how handsome all of our bosses were, and I just figured we should get there early and get our offices set up." Ayame said, blushing like crazy and trying to change the subject.

"Agreed, let's get ready and go." Kagome said. The girls headed upstairs to get ready. She returned downstairs wearing a black business suit with a knee length skirt and a black short jacket. Kagome felt a little weird with the shoulder holster, but she knew if she didn't wear it, she would probably get in trouble. She clipped her security card on the front of her jacket and walked into the living room to sit with Ayame and wait for the others. She saw Ayame holding her new gun, 'I believe he called it a Glock' and she was loading the magazine with bullets. "Hey Ayame, what you doing?"

"Oh hey Kagome, just getting used to this thing, it feels weird carrying around a weapon, especially a gun! Where we grew up occasionally people carried knives, but a gun? It's a little scary when you think about it."

"I know what you mean; I loaded it last night and just put it on today. I feel so weird carrying it."

"It could be worse, we could have had to start carrying around a lot more" Sango said stepping into the room. She was wearing a green business suit with a white blouse. Her jacket concealed her gun as well.

"Who knows? I just hope that they explain just what kind of training this is gonna be." Ayame said.

"It shouldn't be too bad; I mean it is our first day right?" Rin said from the kitchen. She walked into the living room wearing a white and blue business suit with no jacket.

"Yeah I guess, hey Rin where is your gun? Inuyasha said we have to carry them everywhere within the city right?" Kagome asked looking at her.

"It is in my briefcase, I know they said that we had to carry them, but I am just not comfortable wearing it right now." Rin said lifting up her briefcase.

"Very true." Chimed in Sango "Well we had better get going, it's almost 730 and we have to be there by 8."

The girls grabbed their individual briefcases from their rooms and headed out the door. They loaded into the SUV and were quickly away and on their way to the Taishou Tower.

* * *

Inuyasha sat in his workshop going over the files for the girls and trying to figure out the best way to use them tactically. Although it would be a long time before they saw any actual combat, it never hurt to have a head start on these kinds of things.

"Buzz"

Inuyasha looked at his intercom that was most likely coming from his personal assistant, Myouga. Inuyasha touched the talkback button and spoke. "Yes Myouga?"

"Sorry to interrupt you sir." Myouga's raspy voice rang through the speaker "But you have a message from your fathers office, Kaede says your father needs to speak to you on a matter and needs you to head up to him."

Inuyasha sighed heavily, if his father was calling him up so early in the morning, this was not something good. "Alright Ill head up shortly let them know."

"Very good sir."

The line went dead as Inuyasha sat back in his seat at his work desk and closed the file. He rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose before rising and stretching, he had been there since 4 that morning getting the weapons in order to get the girls training started right. He glanced at his watch and sighed again, noticing it was only 735. 'Yep, definitely gonna be a long day.'

He rose from his seat and grabbed his suit coat from the hanger as he began heading out the door. He was wearing a khaki suit with a red shirt and no tie. He absolutely hated ties and unless it was an important meeting or event, he would not be caught dead in one.

He headed out the door and noticed the door to his brother's workshop was open; he walked towards it and poked his head in knocking lightly.

"Yo Sess? You here?"

"What do you need brother, I'm working." His brother's voice rang out. He walked towards the corner to his brother's inner office. The workshops were pretty big overall and featured a small office then a door that lead to the real inner areas, each had a massive collection of weapons from every style of their individual specialties and a large space to work on and see them. Inuyasha's featured a personal gun range. Sesshomaru looked up from his computer and stared at his brother. "I said I was working, what do you need?"

Inuyasha huffed at his brother's response. 'Typical, can't his own brother just want to say hi?' "I was just seeing what you were doing, I am heading up to see pops, he said he needed to see me. What are you working on anyway? You look like you are about to kill something."

"I am working on the Tokijin project if you really must know. It takes a lot of hard work to accomplish something so powerful you know, and if you don't leave, I can kill you if you'd like?"

"Oh, still having trouble with the stabilization of the aura?" Inuyasha said ignoring his brother's usual death threats.

Sesshomaru sat back in his seat and stared at the computer screen before rubbing the bridge of his nose, exactly like his brother had done before looking at his brother again. "It has been the same problem, that blade is perfect in every way, save for the fact that the aura is so powerful. If I don't fix it soon, we may just have to destroy it to prevent it from bringing harm to someone."

"I see." Inuyasha looked at the blade featured in its black case across from Sesshomaru's desk and could feel the waves of evil aura coming off it, almost like a river of pure evil. It gave him the chills. "Have you thought about just letting someone try to tame it without the stabilizers in it? Someone powerful like dad or one of the other older demons in the area?"

"Yes I have actually, but I think it would be a very dangerous idea. If they couldn't tame it, the sword could overtake them and they would be lost to the power of the sword."

"I see. Well, all I can suggest is to ask Kaede what she thinks. I'm heading up anyway, want to come?"

"Ill be up in a bit, I want to run a few more simulations first, I know I'm close to stabilizing it."

"Alright, see you later then. Oh and don't forget the girls will be here around 8." Inuyasha headed out the door and up to the first floor to get on one of the regular elevators. He got off on the first floor and headed to the 15th floor. He was joined in the elevator by Shippo.

"Hey Shippo, what's up?"

"Not much Yash, you heading up to your office or to the top?"

"To the top, Pops has something to discuss with me. Anything more on the incident a couple nights ago?"

"Nothing so far, but we have been able to determine that there were well over 30 total hard drives in that hub trying to crack our security." Shippo was in fact, the Head of the Cyber Division, and besides being a crack shot Sniper, was also well trained in Computer hacking and a variety of other things. "We have determined that their target could only have been 1 of 2 things. Either Project Shikon, or Project Tokijin. They are the only ones that have such high security. We have also confirmed that all of the drivers were bought from a computer company in France and stolen about 6 months ago. A large shipment of 200 hard drives were stolen. We recovered 30, and calculating other parts we have found, we would put the count at about 50 total were used. That means we still have 150 hard drives that could be being used to try and crack this. Whoever is doing this is well organized and well financed. We are compiling a list of possible rival corporations or other entities that could have done this." By the time Shippo was finished talking, they were in the second elevator heading up to the top floor and Inuyasha's father.

"Appreciate it Shippo, don't forget to send a report to us all on your progress. And don't forget the lunch meeting with us, we all need to discuss our next move." Inuyasha waved to him as he walked towards his father's office door and Shippo walked towards Kaede's desk.

"Already being sent, later Yash." Shippo said as Kaede buzzed Inuyasha into his father's office.

Inuyasha entered and closed the door behind him to see what his father needed to discuss.

* * *

The girls pulled into the parking lot for Taishou Towers and headed towards the building for their first day of actual work. Each girl carried their briefcase and headed into the front entrance of the building. They immediately approached the security desk to check in.

"Kagome Higurashi checking in." She showed the guard her security card and the guard examined it carefully, he then asked for the other girl's cards and swiped each in succession through the computer.

"Alright ladies, your cards have been officially activated, after today you will not have to check in, just keep those cards with you wherever you go. Also according to your files, it says you were each issued a firearm, are you each carrying it?"

The girls each pulled their weapon and showed it to the guard. "We were told we had to wear them at all times in this city." Sango said.

"Yes, that is part of the policy in this company, it's for the protection of all of our workers. You are welcome to head up ladies, have a good day." The guard then sat back down and began watching the monitors again dismissing them. The girls concealed their weapons again and went to the elevators, pushing the 15th floor button and slowly rising to the top.

The girls arrived on the 15th floor minutes later, grabbing their briefcases they made their way into the main lobby of the Director's floor.

"It is going to be a while before I get used to the idea of all this." Sango said to no one in particular.

"Yeah, but it is worth it if all this pans out, all I know is I want more answers." Ayame was still in disbelief at the revelation she was a demon herself. It didn't scare her as much as confuse her, she had always thought demons were creatures of evil that devoured humans and killed, obviously she didn't see herself like that at all.

"Agree with you on that point sis." Rin said moving to her desk and sitting in her new chair, reveling at the brand new desk and equipment. The sudden chiming of the elevator from the top floor caught the girl's attention as they were settling in. Kaede and Shippo slowly made their way out and looked at the new employees.

"Hello ladies, how are ye this fair morning?" Kaede said with a soft smile.

"Doing wonderful Kaede, how about yourself?" Sango said with a smile of her own.

"Wonderful as well child, I'm sure you all remember Shippo from yesterday." She said gesturing to the young Kitsune. Shippo took this opportunity to bow slightly towards the girls. "He will be going over the building's basic safety procedures with you all before you all settle in; I will be back shortly while he completes his task." With that she walked back into the corridor behind the elevator that led to the bathrooms and the storage closet.

"Good morning! How are you all doing?" Shippo said cheerfully, taking their smiles to mean he could begin. "Alright I am going to assume each of you has brought all of your weapons and defenses given to you yesterday?" When the girls signaled him yes, he continued. "Alright, the top right drawer is where you keep your gun while you are on this floor and working, you don't need to wear it while you are working or on the top 2 floors. Go ahead and put your guns in there now." The girls promptly removed their guns and placed them in that drawer. "Now that drawer will only open to your fingers and aura, so no one can tamper or steal your firearm. The bracelets are to be worn at all times. Finally should there be any kind of emergency in the building, you are to head into your Director's office immediately and obey their orders. You will know if there is an emergency by a loud alarm and an announcement. We do have monthly lockdown drills to prepare for this."

Shippo took a moment to allow all this to set in before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Now on your phones you will notice a series of speed dial numbers, number 2 is your partner or boss, number 3 is me, number 4 is Kaede, and number 5 is Security. If for some reason you need any of us, that is how to reach us at our office, you can program more numbers as needed. Now that all of that is covered, feel free to get comfy and put your personal touches to your desks, your computers are already programmed and awaiting your work, there is a network connection between you 4 in the form of a messenger, it is a private communication between you 4 and can be used at any time. Well that is all I have, feel free to ask me any questions at this time?"

The girls sat there absorbing all this and looking between each other from their individual desks before Kagome decided to ask a question.

"Yeah, I have a question, when are we going to learn just what our cover jobs are going to entail besides us just sitting at our desks and taking calls?"

"Each of your partners will be up between now and 9 to discuss that with you, each of you will be learning more about their individual responsibilities and will not only be their secretary, but be learning all you can from them. They will teach you the ins and outs of this business so that you can help them make it the best that it can be. So you know, Kaede also has more homework for you girls, You will find a case under each of your desks, these are your new personal issue laptops, they are designed for work and will connect directly with this companies servers, each of them include your personal files to look over as well as things to learn, you will each begin learning your partners responsibilities as well as your own personal responsibilities, as well as reading to understand what kind of personal training you will undergo."

With that Kaede walked back into the main area and decided it was time to let Shippo get back to work. "Thank you Shippo, they need you in Cyber Division, we will see you later." Shippo bowed to the older women and waved a quick goodbye before rushing off to attend to his own usual labor. "Well girls, that was quite a lot to take in, I do hope you all aren't overwhelmed by it all."

"Not at all Miss Kaede, just getting used to the idea of it all is a little tough. So do we just set up our desks and wait for our partners?" Sango asked

"For now yes, feel free to use your new computers, leave the laptops until you get home and feel free to enjoy the space of your new desks. I must be heading up; I will see you girls for lunch alright?" With that she quickly bowed and headed towards the elevator to head up to her work station.

Kagome took this opportunity to look around the desk and let it all sink in. "Well, nothing to do but to get comfy and wait huh?"

"Seems that way sis, at least we have each other right?" Rin said.

"Exactly, it could be much worse, let's just wait for the day to come and get ready eh girls?" Sango cheered.

"Sounds good to me." Ayame said.

The bell from the elevator chiming the arrival of someone caught their attention some time later after they had settled in and all set up their computers like they were told. The figure of Koga exited the elevator and noticed the girls.

"Good morning ladies, how are you all doing this morning?" he asked giving a toothy grin towards Kagome and the rest of the girls.

"Just getting used to the lay of the land, I am dying for a cup of coffee right now. Anyone want to head down to the Restaurant and get some?" Ayame said slowly standing up.

"The Restaurant? On the 2nd floor? That restaurant? For a cup of coffee? Why don't you just use the lounge?" Koga said almost dumbfounded.

"Lounge? What lounge?" Ayame said.

Koga couldn't believe that Kaede hadn't showed them the lounge. "Ladies please follow me." He waited for the ladies to stand before heading to the door to his office; the girls hadn't actually entered these yet so they were unaware that behind the fogged glass was a hallway that separated the lobby from the Director's offices. Koga continued down the hallway, going through a set of double doors at the end of the hall that led behind the elevator shaft. It led into another large room, this one including tables, a small kitchenette, a set of private bathrooms and even couches and a TV. It looked like a private apartment in here.

"What is this place? And why is it back here?" Rin said in disbelief.

"This is our personal Lounge, it includes everything that all of us hard working directors need to relax." He raised his arm and pointed down what looked like another hallway. "Through there is a private gym and lockers for you to store your personal belongings. The kitchen has a huge fridge and freezer for you to bring things in for yourself, such as drinks and food if you want to bring your own; we usually keep it stocked with food and necessities in case we have to stay here overnight for work. Both of the couches fold out into beds, they are actually pretty comfortable. Our offices also have a private couch to stay there if we choose to." Koga explained proudly.

"If you have fold out beds in your office, why would you want more in here?" Kagome asked confused.

"Because we plan operations in here, if you didn't notice, I had to push a thumb scanner before I gained access in here, all of your prints are allowed as well." He raised his hand and pointed into the kitchen area. "There is a coffee maker in there with preset coffee types if you'd like to try some, id suggest the Irish Cream, and it is quite good." He said to Ayame before heading back out towards his office. He suddenly stopped and poked his head from around the corner. "Oh and Ayame, when your done here, would you mind stepping into my office, we have a few things to discuss." With that he smiled with the same toothy grin as before and left the girls to explore the new paradise they had discovered.

"Wow." It was all Kagome could muster to say.

"Yeah." Sango said.

"Unreal." Ayame spoke up.

Rin just stared in wonderment at the massive space of this room as she took in her new surroundings.

* * *

The girls set to exploring the new area as Ayame went and made herself a cup of coffee from the maker, she had to admit, the Irish Cream was good. She waved quickly to the girls as she made her way out of the lounge and back towards Koga's office. She got to the door and knocked lightly.

"Enter." Came the voice of her partner and employer during the day. Ayame opened the door quickly and went inside, closing the door behind her and walking towards the form of Koga, who was currently overlooking a file on his desk. "Have a seat Ayame." He said flatly, obviously concentrating on the file.

Ayame sat down in one of the chairs placed close to his desk and sipped her coffee slowly, she took this time to look around the office and noticed he had a set of couches facing each other to the far right with a coffee table, 'probably to make meetings more comfortable.' He also had a personal bar from the looks of it, and other usual stuff in an office, like filing cabinets and small statues. Koga suddenly closed the file and folded his hands before looking up at Ayame and sighing heavily.

"Well that news could have been better, but we will figure it out, anyway, how are you adjusting so far today?" Koga said, his eyes looking slightly less serious.

"So far so good, though I am still very confused on how exactly I could be a demon and never know it."

"Simple, you never had a reason to know it, from what your file says, you were taken from your parents before you were 13, which is when all of the signs would start. It is odd that you never had any thoughts about it. Did you never notice that you could smell things more clearly, and seemed to be naturally athletic without trying?" Koga said leaning back in his chair.

"No, I never really thought about it. What does me being a demon mean anyway? That I am cursed or something?" Ayame said looking down

"Nothing of the sort, it just means that you are part of an ancient bloodline of creatures with demonic abilities. All it means is that you are not a human and instead have traits of an animal rather than those of a human. In fact the only real differences are that demons are stronger, faster, and have better senses typically, and that in times of extreme stress, demons instincts kick in where humans still have some form of thought. Overall there are no real physical differences except for your DNA. You are a full blooded wolf demon like me, and I will teach you about your blood line, believe it or not, we are of the same ancient clan of wolf demons. You are no different than you were the moment before you knew you were a demon, just like Kagome and Rin found out they have miko energy and Sango found out she was an ancient demon assassin. You are still you, we are just going to teach you how to harness that power and put it to a use that would be better suited than not knowing about it." Koga explained.

"So is that why you chose us to work here? To teach us how to harness out powers and use us?" Ayame said sternly.

"Not at all, we chose you so that we could teach you how to use your powers if you wanted to. You still have the choice to walk away from this at any time. We all do. But with us, you will be doing something good with it, rather than allowing it to control you. Here I have something I want to give you." Koga pulled out a necklace from his desk with what a gold pendant in it with a claw insignia on it. "This is our Clan's crest. I want you to have it. You can do with it what you want, but if you ever need to know who you are, all you have to do is look in the mirror. You are Ayame, the girl that grew up in a home with crappy parents, and was saved by Kagome's family, before finding your true family. Being a demon doesn't change who you are, it just changes what you can do." As Koga said that his phone buzzed, signaling his assistants were here. "Excuse me a moment dear Ayame." He pushed the receiver button. "What is it?"

"Sorry to disturb you boss, but Cyber Division found something. They are asking for you." The voice of one of his assistants called over the speaker.

"Very well, I will be there shortly. Thank you Ginta." Koga said into the receiver.

"No problem boss." The voice of Ginta said.

"Well it seems I have some actual work to do. Being Director of Security is a busy job. I will be back shortly, if I get any calls or messages please just take it and I will get it when I get back." Koga said standing up. "If you have any more questions feel free to call me on my cell phone." He said giving her a card. Ayame stood and they walked out of his office together, seeing the other girls at their desks typing away on their computers. Koga then headed towards the elevator waving at all the girls. Ayame went to her desk and sat down, placing the card on her phone and began programming the number.

"Hey Ayame what was that all about?" Sango said from her desk.

Ayame lifted her head from the phone and looked at her sisters staring at her. "Oh nothing just a talk on my daily responsibilities and such. Did I miss anything exciting?"

"No not really, we looked around the lounge then came back, Miroku is in his office and hasn't asked for Sango yet, he was on his phone when he came in, and Rin got a phone call for her boss." Kagome said sipping her own cup of coffee.

"Ah cool." Ayame said. She continued programming the number while the rest of the girls were focusing on their jobs at hand.

The intercom on Rin's desk suddenly went off, causing the others to glance over at her. She reached a tentative hand forward and pushed the receiver button. "Hello?"

"Is this Rin Higurashi, Director Sesshomaru Taishou's new secretary?" The voice asked over the speaker.

"Yes it is, who may I ask is this?" Rin said cautiously.

"This is Jaken, Lord Sesshomaru's personal assistant, I believe you met me yesterday." The voice of Jaken said.

"Oh yes, what can I do for you Mr. Jaken?" Rin said respectively.

"I am on my way up to get you; Lord Sesshomaru has asked me to bring you to his personal workshop downstairs. I will be there shortly to get you. Please sure to remember to bring everything with you." Jaken spoke and disconnected the line.

"Alright then." Rin said standing up and then stopping, staring off at the elevator. "What exactly am I supposed to bring again?" Rin said her eyes suddenly widening.

"I don't know Sis, I would say your briefcase and stuff you don't want to leave here, but I don't know what else." Kagome said.

"Hey, Call Shippo, he said call if we need anything, which speed dial was his again?" Sango said looking at her phone.

"Number 3 I believe let me call him." Ayame said picking up her phone and pushing the speed dial. It rang for a moment before Shippo's voice came up. "Hey Shippo, its Ayame. Yeah everything is going alright, but listen, Sesshomaru's assistant is coming to get Rin and said something about bringing her stuff with her, we were wondering what all that entailed? Alright." Ayame pushed a button on her phone and put the receiver down and pushed a button. "Alright Shippo, your on Speaker."

"Hey ladies, hope your day is going alright, so Rin, where did Jaken say he was taking you exactly?"

"He said something about going to a workshop and said I needed to bring everything." Rin said.

"Alright, first grab your gun and put it on, second your briefcase, you can leave your laptop, but do bring your jacket and anything else you don't want to leave up there, if Sesshomaru is taking you to his workshop, there is no telling how long you will be gone." Shippo said. "That is all I have for you ladies, sorry I can't be of more help."

"Thanks Shippo, you've been a great help." Kagome said.

"No problem ladies, I'll talk to you later." His voice said over the phone.

Ayame picked up the receiver and put it down, ending the call. "Well at least we know we can ask him for help when needed."

Rin stood up and pulled open her drawer, pulling her firearm and deciding to put it on for now, despite how uncomfortable she was wearing it. She pulled the shoulder holster from her briefcase and put it on, as well as the extra clip and holstered the pistol before she closed her briefcase and grabbed her coat, throwing it over her arm before waiting for Jaken. They heard the bell for the elevator and looked down the hall, but were surprised when after a few moments no one came out.

"Hey, I'm over here ladies." A voice that could only be one person rang out from behind the girls. Kagome turned and saw Inuyasha holding a black briefcase in his hand and wearing a khaki suit. "How is your first day going?" He said smiling and grinning towards Kagome.

"No complaints Mr. Taishou." Rin said

"Inuyasha please. I hate formality in private, in front of clients is one thing, in private, please just call me Inuyasha." He said. "So you all know, at 3 please head into my office, you will be receiving your first day of training from me. I need to take this case back down to the vault, Kagome, would you like to come with me?"

"Um sure, but what about calls or messages?" Kagome said looking at her phone.

"Don't worry, those shouldn't come until about 10." He said as he began walking towards the elevator. "Just grab your gun and come with me." He said nonchalantly as he walked past her desk.

She let out a sigh and reached into her desk, pulling the weapon and putting it in her holster. She waved quickly at her sisters as she heard the elevator chime. Jaken came walking out as he bowed lightly at Inuyasha and called for Rin to come with him. The 4 of them got back onto the elevator and the doors chimed as they closed and began carrying the passengers downstairs. Suddenly the intercom on Sango's desk went off and she pushed the receiver.

"Yes?" she said.

"Sango, please come into my office." The voice of Miroku rang out over the speaker.

"Yes sir, on my way." She stood and walked towards the office, leaving Ayame alone in the office.

In the elevator Jaken looked towards Inuyasha and then noticed the case in his hands, he immediately recognized what it was and silently released the safety strap on his gun holster before speaking to Inuyahsa in a low voice, knowing he would hear him with his heightened senses.

"That was irresponsible Inuyasha, you know your father demands security around that thing at all times." Jaken said lowly. Inuyasha turned his head slightly and looked back at him with a strong gaze, signaling him to return his holster strap before he made him. Jaken secured the strap and made a mental note to report that to Sesshomaru. "So where are you taking that thing anyway."

"The Vault." Inuyasha said in his normal voice, making Kagome and Rin look towards him. "I am taking the Shikon back to the vault." He said clarifying.

"What is the Shikon?" Kagome said to herself.

"None of your business miko, and you shouldn't have moved it from the top floor without a security escort Inuyasha, what if someone tries to steal it?" Jaken said sternly.

"I will just have to kill them won't I." Inuyasha said in a dangerous tone to Jaken which gave no more room for argument. When the elevator stopped on the bottom floor, Koga was standing there looking at Inuyasha and the rest of them.

"Your father told me you wouldn't call security, so I came for backup. Let's get that thing back in the vault, and next time call security Inuyasha, you know the procedure." Koga said hotly towards Inuyasha.

Inuyasha huffed and moved quickly, Koga, Jaken, Rin and Kagome following behind them and they all got into the Basement elevator. Inuyasha pushed the top floor button and slid his card. The elevator lowered one floor and a door opened, revealing several guards and a huge steel door.

"Alright, Kagome come with me." Inuyasha said as he stepped off of the elevator.

"Wait a minute Inuyasha, you are not taking her into the vault!" Koga said.

"Want to bet Wolf?" Inuyasha said "Come on Kagome."

"Your pushing it mutt." Koga said as Kagome stepped out and the door closed.

"Damn wolf. Come on Kagome." Inuyasha said walking towards the security desk and showing them his card. The security staff for this place were all dressed in full body gear, including guns and helmets, there were 10 of them, 2 behind the desk, and 8 on either side of the room, watching, there were also cameras and what looked like sensors. Inuyasha took his card and walked to the door, a retina scanner scanning his eye before he placed his palm on the finger pad as it scanned it his palm, a small hissing sound coming from the door as the steel door slid open. He walked forward, signaling Kagome to follow him as she walked forward, one of the guards moved forward to stop her. "Hold there, she is with me."

"But sir, your father has said explicitly that no…"

"I don't care, she is coming with me, I will take full responsibility for her understand? Now let her pass." Inuyasha said cutting the man off.

The guard moved back and allowed Kagome to pass as she stepped forward and the steel doors closed behind her.

"What is this place Inuyasha?" Kagome said staring down the hallway.

"This is our Vault, it holds all of our most sensitive information as well as our most powerful and dangerous weapons." He began walking forward and Kagome followed, making her way into down the hall passing many doors before coming to another door at the end. Inuyasha pushed a button on the side of the door and a keypad moved out from the wall, he inputted a series of buttons before the door opened, Kagome could hear the locks disengaging before the massive door of the Vault opened up and swung open slowly.

"This is our most secure area in the building. Once the door is closed, any life forms in here would die, this place is pressurized to remove all air and is temperature controlled, so even if they could survive without air, any heat signature sets off the alarm. This is where we keep the Shikon."

Inuyasha walked forward to the pedestal in the center of the room before opening the briefcase in his hand and removing a small pink jewel from within, Kagome couldn't remove her eyes from the jewel's bright pink glow, it was mesmerizing in a way that she couldn't explain.

Inuyasha placed the jewel in a stand in the center of the pedestal and pulled his hand before pushing a button on it and Kagome watched as several rays of light shot up around the pedestal and the stand.

"Heat and Motion detecting beams, as well as the glass case that is lowering now. It's also pressure sensitive, if you somehow get through the beams and glass, you'd set the alarm off if you move it because of the pressure plate. We take no chances with precautions to keep this safe." Inuyasha explained staring at the jewel.

"What is so special about this jewel?" Kagome asked, still staring at the pink ball.

"It is an unlimited energy source, capable of powering the entire city. The problem is the jewel is able to be converted into anything, including an energy weapon. Several governments and groups have tried to get a hold of the jewel to use it for a weapon. They claim to want it for other reasons, and have even offered billions of dollars for it, but it just can't be sold like that, not until we figure out the best way to use it." Inuyasha placed the case into the pedestal holding. He turned towards Kagome with a very serious look on his face. "Kagome, I brought you here to show you this jewel. This is quite possibly the most dangerous thing in this city right now. And that is truly saying something. Now that you have seen the most dangerous thing, you never have to worry about anything else scaring you here." He moved towards her and signaled for her to leave with him.

Kagome took a very long look at the small pink orb that seemed to radiate energy. She had never seen anything so captivating, and knew that Inuyasha was telling the truth. 'I guess this means they really do trust us that much.' "Thank you Inuyasha." She moved in front of him and left the vault. They made their way out of the vault and back to the elevator before heading back upstairs.

TBC

* * *

After a Long time, I am back and Hoping to get this story out. I have been overrun and am now in Law School which is taking up a lot of my time, but I started this and despite the year wait, I intend to finish it. Look for me to publish as quickly as I can. Thanks to all the readers and I hope you enjoyed the long awaited chapter 5. Look for Chapter 6 soon.

Chapter 6, the First day of Training.


	6. Chapter 6

The Smell of Gunpowder

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. All brand names are owned by their own owners. Once again, I own nothing.

Summary - Kagome, Sango, Rin, and Ayame are all moving from the small town to the Big City for their new jobs at Taishou Defensive Technology and Weaponry. Who would have thought they would be entering a modern day war for power?

"speaking"

'thinking'

* * *

Chapter 6

* * *

The next 2 hours of their day had gone smoothly for the girls. Each girl had learned that their daily responsibilities during office hours was that of a regular secretary; taking calls, messages, setting up appointments, and making sure that those that came for meetings were greeted with a kind smile and quick response. They had also discovered that all of the offices looked the same, minus a few personal touches. The messenger program on the computer's had been a nice touch, allowing the girls to talk to each other privately without verbal communication, they had already employed that as they had learned Sesshomaru would not stand to hear them gossiping out loud in such a professional environment, as he had put it. They were surprised at the difference of their bosses from the day before, Koga and Inuyasha seemed much more serious today, Miroku, though he had tried to grope Sango once already, was similar. Sesshomaru was pretty much the same, though there were no personal insults today, they wondered just what happened between yesterday and today.

At about 12:15, they heard the now all too familiar chime of the elevator as they all turned their heads to see who was now coming to see their bosses.

"Well ladies, are ye all ready to head down for some lunch?" Kaede asked from behind them.

Sango was the first to answer and stood quickly at this, "Sounds great to me, let me just tell Miroku were heading down."

The other girls stood as well and proceeded to go inform their bosses they were heading to lunch with Kaede. They were released for lunch and headed towards the elevator.

"Um ladies, I think you are forgetting something." Kaede said as the girls suddenly stopped and turned towards her as she stood in the middle of their desks.

"What is that Miss Kaede?" Kagome said confused, 'were we supposed to clock out or something?'

"None of you are carrying your side arms." Kaede said matter-a-factually.

The girls looked at her for a moment before quickly returning to their desks and retrieving their weapons. "I will never get used to carrying this thing." Rin spoke from behind her desk, a grimace on her face as she holstered the weapon.

"Give it time, no one likes having to carry a weapon, but in this city it is needed." Kaede said trying to ease the tension of the girls.

"Why do we need these things though Miss Kaede, isn't there security in the building?" Sango asked as they moved towards the elevator.

"Aye, we do have security in this building; however that does not mean that all of the employees need to depend on them. This is a weapons development company, we develop and make weapons for human and demon kind, think about how easy it would be for an employee to go crazy and get a hold of a weapon and use it on other employees? Our policy is primarily to deter that kind of behavior. We protect ourselves because there are so many potential threats in this building. We have a lot of rare technology and powerful weapons, especially in the vault; think about how many people would kill to get a hold of those weapons? How many rival companies would love to get a hold of our plans or prototypes so that they can copy the technology? Our weapons policy; that all employees carry a weapon and be able to defend against a demon or human attack at all times while in this building is the biggest deterrent against rival corporations trying to take those things by force." Kaede finished her speech as the elevator opened at the second floor restaurant.

"Wow, I didn't know there were so many rival corporations, have any companies tried to take stuff from Taishou Defense before?" Sango asked.

"Aye, multiple times. Some use computers to try to steal information, some have been foolish enough to try to take it physically and broken into the building, some have even attempted and succeeded in getting their people in our company as employees. We have had things stolen and we do everything that we can to prevent it happening again. "Kaede said coldly. "Be wary girls, before you enter this world, you need to know what kind of place it is. People will try to get close to you so that they can get information or get close to the Directors. There are good people in this world, but when it comes to business, the only thing that matters is money and power. Your partners will be going over this with you at some point, just remember girls, be careful whom you trust, and never be afraid to trust your partner. They may have their faults, as we all do, but they will never betray you, ever." At this point, the girls had been shown to their seats and were sitting intently listening to Kaede.

"Why are you involved in such a world Miss Kaede? It doesn't sound like a world any of us would want to be involved with." Rin said looking down.

"This world isn't all bad. We are trying to save lives, and keep people safe. The simple fact is I chose to be part of this world, as each of you have the same choice in front of you." Kaede said, trying to ease the tension. "You will each do great things in your lives, we are simply asking you to do it here, with us. Give it a day or two, go to training, and see what you think, each of you can choose to walk away at any time, remember that, but do not quit before you get started, and don't be afraid. None of your partners will put you through anything that they don't think you are fully capable of handling." Kaede said smiling and signaling the waiter to come and take their orders. "Well what say we order some food and enjoy our lunch eh? No more of this negative talk for now."

"Alright Miss Kaede, but I do have one more question for you." Ayame said.

"What is that dear child?" Kaede said before ordering her drink and food.

"What kind of training exactly are we going to be going through?" Ayame said, her sisters looking at Kaede as well, hoping for an informative answer. Kaede stared back for a moment then answered.

"I don't know. That is for your partner to show you. I honestly don't know what kind of training they have planned for you." Kaede said before taking a sip of her hot tea that had been brought to her. "Now let's enjoy lunch, why don't you all tell me about the house you all moved into?" Kaede said changing the subject entirely.

"Alright Miss Kaede." Kagome said, her head still swimming with questions that she doubted Kaede would answer.

* * *

Inuyasha exited his office and walked next door to Miroku's. "Hey Roku, are you coming?"

"Yes Inuyasha, I am, just printing up a report to bring with me. Alright, I'm ready, let's go." He stood and grabbed the paper before slipping it into his black portfolio. "Did you get Shippo's report?"

"Yeah I got it this morning. Ready for this?" Inuyasha asked in reference to the meeting with his father.

"Not really, I've been up to my neck in phone calls and paperwork since yesterday, it is going to take weeks to resolve everything." Miroku said as they walked out into the main area and saw Koga exiting his office with a portfolio of his own, no doubt containing his own reports to give. They all stopped for a moment when they heard the elevator chime coming from downstairs and turned back, Shippo stepped out and made his way quickly towards them.

"Hey guys, got the latest reports from Cyber Division. Are we heading up?" Shippo said, a portfolio with him as well.

"Yeah Shippo, come on. Is Sesshomaru already up there or is he in his office?" Inuyasha asked.

"He wasn't in his office, I checked. He is probably already upstairs." Koga said.

"Alright, let's go." Miroku said as he led everyone to the elevator and swiped his card, the four men stepped on once the doors opened and the doors closed. They arrived at the top floor moments later and filed out, making their way to the conference room, where both Inu no Taishou and Sesshomaru awaited them. The four men entered the door and sat down, each acknowledging each other but not interrupting the conversation between Sesshomaru and his father.

"Well that sword is going to need to be tamed soon, or else it will begin attracting demons and humans alike. Perhaps we should find someone to try to tame it after all. Have you given thought to any potential candidates?" Inu no Taishou inquired of his son.

"No Father, I believe it will be too dangerous, the only person I would think of would be I. If anyone needs to take the risk, it would be me, and I know I can tame it."

"Out of the question, I will not risk the life of my oldest son for the sake of taming a sword, if it comes to that, we will just destroy the damn thing."

"Father, I designed that sword myself, If anyone knows what it is capable of, it is I. I can tame it."

"We will not discuss it further at this time, we have other business to attend to. Miroku, please present your report on our legal standing and results of Saturday's operation." Inu no Taishou said, ending one conversation and waiting for Miroku to give his report.

Miroku opened his portfolio, put on his reading glasses and leaned forward, interlocking his fingers and taking a deep breath before he spoke. "Early reports show no collateral loss of life from our operation, there were no injuries from the explosion or gunfire reported or discovered. Of those gunman that were killed in the shootout, all were hired guns of a private security firm that has refused to specify its employer for that job, though early payment trails are looking like they were hired by our primary target and not by a company, pointing towards an individual act rather than a rival corporation. The security firm has refused to press charges because their men were acting outside the scope of their duties and should not have been there, the men that were employed were supposed to be somewhere in the middle east and they have no explanation what their men were doing there. From the city, we have learned that the warehouse was owned by a nonprofit organization that has owned it since 2004, but has not been using it since 2006. They have filed a suit for damages to property and I have a meeting with the DA tomorrow afternoon to discuss the options. We are one of 5 different suits that have been filed within the last 24 hours by this company, it looks like they knew what was going on and had the papers drafter either on Sunday or very early Monday, either way, they were ready for these suits. My division is digging now to see what they can find. Finally, the city has not charged us with anything, though the Chief of Police has requested a full report by Thursday on the subject and a statement from our company. Their investigation revealed the explosion that destroyed the warehouse was done using high-grade plastique explosive and they are doing an investigation into the source, we have conducted our own and gotten a match for a stolen batch of explosive out of Russia, suspect alias is "Rogue". We are doing a search for known locations and contacts and seeing what we can come up with. That is all I have to report." Miroku said as he removed his glasses, placed them on his open portfolio and leaned back in his chair looking up at everyone.

"I know the Chief well, I will give him a call tomorrow and sort that out, good job Miroku and let me know how the meeting goes with the DA." Inu no Taishou said. "Inuyasha, why don't you go next."

Inuyasha opened his own portfolio and leaned forward before speaking. "The rifle was identified as a Remington model 700 military grade bolt action rifle. The serial number has been removed; though ballistics matched it to a service weapon out of Canada that has been missing since early 2000. All other recovered weapons have been identified and turned over to the police department for investigation, most have some connection with a criminal case or are missing evidence, the others are being traced using ballistics to locate their origins. All of our weapons, shells, and knives from the scene have been recovered or destroyed. All of our gear has been recovered and accounted for." Inuyasha closed his portfolio and sat up, looking at each member around the table and his father.

"Hmmm, Very good, good job Inuyasha, has the rifle been reported to have been found yet?" Taishou asked.

"Not yet, we haven't determined its entire line back up until it was stolen, once that is done, we will send notice of its recovery."

"Alright, keep me informed on your progress." At this point Izayoi Taishou and a waiter from the restaurant entered the conference room with a pushcart full of food for the group, the six meals were distributed and Izayoi kissed her husband before escorting the waiter to the elevator and leaving with her, going to her own meetings with the various other departments in the building. As the men quickly began eating their food, Taishou spoke again. "Koga, let's hear your report please."

Koga quickly put down his silverware and wiped his mouth before opening his portfolio and clearing his throat before speaking. "All security personnel from the operation have been de-briefed and examined. We had only one injury to report that occurred just after the explosion caused by some falling debris that struck one of our men in his right leg. A semi serious burn was reported on his leg and he has since been treated and is now resting comfortable in one of our private hospitals. He will be able to return next week and is in good spirits. All security procedures have been updated and our perimeter has now been set 1200 meters around the target. We are hoping to be able to establish a perimeter of 1600 meters within the next month. Volunteers for operational status are up 50 percent since Saturday. I request we consider raising our operational status numbers by at least double to accommodate the new changes that are going to be made in the coming months. All areas of the buildings and our residents have been swept for bugs and none have been located, Primary security areas are still at 100 percent lockdown and protection. No incidents' to report since Saturday and security is operating normally." Koga finished and closed his Portfolio before taking up his fork and knife again.

"Very good Koga, you are well on your way to redeeming yourself. What are the numbers of our security personnel as of now?"

"Currently we have a staff of 400 that work all shifts of security in house throughout the day. Of those, exactly 120 are cleared for operational duty."

"Hmm, and you wish to double that?"

"I believe if we are to ensure something like Saturday doesn't happen again, it is something we need to do. I would prefer to raise our security force to 500 and have at least half of them cleared for operational duty."

"That sounds like you might be jumping the gun. How many personnel do our rivals have?"

"Some have as many as 2000 pure security personnel. Though they don't develop weapons and are security firms."

Inu No Taishou looked very serious at this statement. He was deep in thought for a few moments before he spoke again. "Koga. Raise our numbers to 1000 in pure security. Of those, I want 600 at Operational Status 200 on call at all times. Will that suffice?"

Koga choked on the bite he had been chewing as he looked up at Inu no Taishou, his eyes wide. "Sir, that is a huge undertaking. Our current facility will not be large enough to accommodate such a growth."

"Expand Security to the sixth floor, along with the seventh and eighth floors that should give you plenty of room for this expansion, and move Advertising to the third floor. I believe it is time to expand our security force to make it something comparable with security companies. If a rival corporation of those numbers tried to take our property by force, we would be hard pressed to stop them at our current state." Inu no Taishou said knowing what he was suggesting would take a normal company years, knowing Koga like he did, he suspected they would be to that mark in less than 6 months. The changes to the building would not take more than a month. In addition, the third floor had not had a definite purpose other than paper pushers in the building anyway. "Since we are bringing up the security, if we are going to undertake this, then let's go all the way. Inuyasha, please consult with Koga and outfit our forces with top quality gear, everything from vehicles to weaponry. I want to be ready for anything, and I mean anything. Koga, change ALL of the protocols, I want them updated and improved. What other improvements can be made to ensure security for all of our employees and property?" Inu no Taishou looked around the table at his Directors and Shippo, these were the men he trusted to keep his company and all of the members of it safe, he expected nothing less than the best out of them.

Inuyasha was the first to speak. "Our gear is currently top of the line, no need to replace it now, however our vehicles could use some armor and armament upgrades, as well as possibly having a quick response team on standby at all times somewhere close by."

"We already keep a 10 man response team on the first floor near the entrance, we will double that."

"If we are going to increase our standard security, then we need to increase it the right way." Sesshomaru spoke for the first time since the meeting had formally begun.

"What do you mean Sesshomaru?" Inu no Taishou asked.

"I mean we have only addressed the issue of human security. If we are going to put this much time into it, we need to have a team trained and ready specifically to deal with Demons."

"I hadn't considered that, what do you have in mind exactly?" Inu no Taishou asked.

"A team of Demons whose sole obligation is to respond to threats from demons, not just humans, a supplemental team if you will, outfitted with our gear and highly trained in fighting demons." Sesshomaru stated plainly. "While it is true that human arms, such as what our security personnel carry can put down a demon with enough time, they are mostly outfitted with defensive demon technology, we need a team that can take the fight to the demon and be prepared to respond offensively to the threat, just like we all are."

"I agree with you Sesshomaru. I second that idea." Koga chimed in.

"I do as well." Miroku stated.

"Me too." Inuyasha stated after a moment. "our Tactical Team is the only one currently capable of taking on demons, if we have a team ready for at all times, we can focus on other things."

"Then it is settled. Sesshomaru, I am placing this team under you, get some candidates and get to work on it." Inu no Taishou said. "Before we call this meeting, Shippo, do you have anything to report?"

Shippo, who had been silently enjoying his meal and listening intently to all those he considered his family. He opened his portfolio and reported the little bit of good news that he did have. " So far there have been no breaches and the current protocols and firewalls have been upgraded and reinforced. The Cyber division has almost completed the list of possible rival corporations with the resources and possible desire to put this on. That list should be ready early tomorrow morning." Shippo finished his report and closed his portfolio.

"Good. Glad to hear that Shippo. This meeting is officially adjourned unless there are no further comments." Inu no Taishou spoke looking around the room, when no one spoke, he finished. "Then this meeting is over. Get to it gentlemen."

As they all stood to go, Inu no Taishou had one more comment to make. "Also, Inuyasha, don't go too hard on the girls today, we don't want to scare them away before they even get started here."

Inuyasha scoffed at the accusation. "If they can't handle a little weapons training, I don't think they need to be here Pop. Besides, they look like they could use a little toughening up."

"Come now Inuyasha, you can't treat such beauties so roughly. They are delicate and should be treated as such." Miroku chimed in.

"Feh, whatever Roku." Inuyasha turned and made his way to the elevator.

"That boy has a lot to learn about women." Koga chimed out.

"Oh that is certain." Miroku agreed.

"I just hope he doesn't scare them all away, I really like the girls." Shippo said.

The three men agreed before making their way towards the elevator. Sesshomaru stayed in the office.

"Father, shall we continue our discussion on the Tokijin where we left off?"

"Indeed." Inu no Taishou said as he and his son moved to his office to continue talk as usual between them.

* * *

Other than the serious conversation to begin with, lunch had been uneventful for the girls. The last hours of the day seemed to fly by leading towards their first training session. Before the girls knew it, three o clock came around and the girls each looked at each other, wondering what was going to happen. The now all too familiar chime of the elevator caught the girl's attention as they turned their heads towards the elevator and Shippo made his way out and towards them.

"Hey girls, are you all ready for your first day of training?" Shippo asked smiling.

"Yeah we have been wondering how exactly we are going to get trained. Inuyasha said we were training with him today." Kagome said.

"You are, why don't you get ready and follow me down, I will let Yash know I am taking you down to get prepared." Shippo said as he made his way towards Inuyasha's office. He walked through the outer door and then disappeared as it closed. The girls quickly gathered their bags and each reached into their desk, retrieving their pistols. They each shut down their computers and grabbed their new laptops in their bags and briefcases and awaited Shippo. As Shippo returned, he turned to the girls and spoke once again. "Don't worry about bringing all of that, you will be able to come and get that after your session. For now just bring your weapons and follow me." The girls placed their things down and proceeded to follow Shippo to the elevator.

"So do we need clothes for this? We all threw a bag into our vehicle of workout gear if we needed it." Sango asked.

"No, we provide all of that, you will see when we get to the training level." The elevator arrived at the ground floor a couple minutes later and Shippo lead them around to the Basement elevator before swiping his card. The girls and Shippo stepped in and Shippo hit the bottom floor button.

"I thought that was the gun range Shippo?" Kagome asked.

"It does house our gun range, but there is more to it than that." They arrived a moment later and stepped out, Shippo leading them to the immediate right and taking a few steps before pushing a button on the wall. A keypad folded down and he swiped his card before inputting a series of buttons on the pad. The keypad folded into the wall as a door sprung open from the wall, the girls would have never guessed there was a door there. Shippo quickly lead them through the doorway and into a large room that looked like a dojo and pushing another button that closed and sealed the door. The girls stared around in wonderment at the weaponry and flags adorning the walls.

"What is this place Shippo?" Ayame said still wide-eyed.

"This is our advanced training area. Only a select few are allowed to use this place and we can train using almost any kind of weapon here, demon or human origin." Shippo said before moving to the left and signaling the girls to follow. "Come on girls, let's get you changed out into some appropriate clothing."

Suddenly the girls jumped as they heard a loud crash as a punching bag flew across the room and hit the wall with extreme force, it looked like it should have caved in the wall, but the wall was completely unharmed, the flags and weapons on the wall hadn't even moved. They looked over at a tall hulking form of a man, obviously a demon, that was breathing heavily and had his right arm at full extension.

"Nice shot Jinenji!" Shippo called out to the man. "I think you are just showing off for the girls though."

The man called Jinenji lowered his arm and what looked like a smile appeared on his face before he made his way towards them. To call him a hulk was putting it mildly, he was huge by even demon standards and looked like he could snap any of the girls in half without a second thought; he was quite intimidating to the girls after that display.

"You know I would never do that Shippo, just got carried away I guess, you know I don't know my own strength." The man called Jinenji spoke softly to Shippo.

"Yeah, I know. Still, you get better and better every day. Girls, this is Jinenji, he is our Head of Security for the building. He is the one who keeps all of the employees safe." Shippo said introducing the ladies.

"Good to meet you ladies." Jinenji said quietly, it was hard to believe a man that was capable of that kind of display was so quiet and seemed so timid. Each girl introduced themselves and shook his hand. "Well, I had better get back to it. I will see you all later I guess." Jinenji bid them goodbye for the time and went to retrieve his bag, which he promptly picked up as if it weighed nothing and threw it over one shoulder.

"He is a unique one." Kagome stated, though she had no doubt he had a good heart, she couldn't sense a single trace of malice in him.

"Yeah, he is a wonderful guy, he fights with brute force, but you'd never believe he was capable of that after speaking with him. Ah well, come on, let's get you girls changed." Shippo said, once again leading them towards a door.

As they entered, they saw Ginta and Hakkaku standing there with a bag.

"Ah there you are Shippo, we got the clothing Koga told us to, and it's all in here." Ginta said pointing to the bag.

"Thanks guys, I'll take it from here. Are you 2 sticking around for training?" Shippo said taking the bag.

"No, we have a few errands to run for Koga, prepping for the expansion." Hakkaku said.

"Ah alright, well have fun. Come on girls." Shippo said leading them down the hall and waving goodbye to Ginta and Hakkaku.

The girls were led down a hallway and to a door that read women's locker room. They were met at the door by Izayoi Taishou. "I shall take it from here Shippo. Why don't you go get ready for your training for the day, I will take care of the girls." Izayoi said warmly to Shippo who nodded his head and handed her the bag before waving to the girls and heading to the men's locker room down the hall. "Alright ladies, shall we get you changed?" Izayoi said in a warm and comforting tone to the girls before leading them into the locker room. It was a larger room with shower facilities, lockers along the rear wall, scales, and restroom facilities, all the amenities of a standard locker room. "You will each find your name on a locker along the rear wall, each has already been assigned, and they are larger sized lockers and can hold all of your training gear. We got your sizes from your mother. Each of your training outfits are in this bag, with your name on it. For today, you will be training physically with Inuyasha then move on to basic weapons training. For now feel free to leave your firearms in your locker, you can get them later. Your lockers work much like your desk drawers do, in that only your hand and aura can open the locker so you can store anything that you want in there." Izayoi placed the bag on a table in the locker room and opened it before distributing the outfits. They were very basic, black and white training outfits, complete with black and white work out shorts, a white sleeveless undershirt, black and white track pants and jacket, as well as socks and sneakers. They all sported the Taishou Defense emblem. "Well, good luck on your first day. We all have faith in you." Izayoi then left the locker room allowing the girls to change.

The girls changed into their outfits and stored their clothes and firearms in the lockers before exiting and heading out into the dojo like training area. There they saw Inuyasha and Miroku sparring wearing identical outfit, though Inuyasha's was black with red stripes red and Miroku's was black with purple stripes. Inuyasha was throwing punches and kicks while Miroku was defending and suddenly dropped down, sweeping Inuyasha's legs and taking him down. Inuyasha responded by rolling back and hopping up before throwing a kick towards Miroku, who was still in the downward position, stopping just before it connected. He looked over at the girls and helped Miroku up before they both moved towards them.

"How are you doing ladies? You all look lovely in those outfits." Miroku said charmingly as ever.

"Can it Miroku, looks like you girls are ready. Shall we begin?" Inuyasha said looking at the girls.

"Yeah, I guess." Kagome said.

"Alright girls, follow me. I'll see you later Miroku." Inuyasha said before turning and heading towards the side of the room to an opening that looked very dark. The girls waved bye to Miroku before following Inuyasha. Inuyasha came to an opening and stepped through it, stepping into what seemed to be a dimly lit room. "This is our running track, it is carved out into the mountain and is exactly 3 miles from here until it circles around and ends up back here. The path is darkened so that you can't see the distance and to allow you to focus on the run itself, not be distracted. Directly above you are several lights, when you start to run, one will lock onto your aura and stay directly above you the entire run. This run includes both inclines and declines. If for some reason you can't continue, simply walk it through. There are periodical water sources though there are no signals of how far you have been going. We are going to try to do two full laps today. Are you all ready?" Inuyasha finished looking at the girls.

"I'm ready." Kagome said; feeling a little nervous about this, she hadn't done such a heavy run in years.

"Same here."

"Yeah, let's do it."

"Yep."

"Alright, let's go." Inuyasha turned and took off running, going at a brisk pace but not pushing himself so as not to leave the girls behind. The girls followed behind, some faster than others, Sango and Kagome running almost neck and neck with Sango having the slight lead, Rin just behind them, and Ayame slightly behind her.

Kagome noticed that the light above her was literally only enough to light up her and the area directly in front of her, if she was running by herself, she had no doubt that she would not be distracted. "Inuyasha how often do you run this path?"

"Typically I run at least once a day. Sometimes I run this path, but when I do, I go much faster. This is a rather slow pace for me." Inuyasha responded, no evidence of even slightly heavy breathing, it sounded like he was on a walk.

"Then why not run at your pace?" Kagome asked.

"Because I would leave you all behind. Give it time, and I have a bet Ayame and Sango will be leaving You and Rin in the dust as well." Inuyasha said bluntly.

"What makes you say that?" Ayame asked, knowing she had never done any intensive running in her whole life.

"Koga is not as strong as I am, but In terms of pure speed on the run, none of us can keep up with him. Sesshomaru is the only one that has ever given him a run for his money." Inuyasha stated. "Wolf demon's are typically pretty fast, and most fight in packs or at high speed."

"So then why am I going to leave them behind?" Sango asked.

"Demon Slayers through history have been gifted athletes, and fight using their own skills, typically that involves being very fit and athletic. Ayame has her demon abilities, Kagome and Rin have their spiritual abilities, and you will have your harsh training. Miroku does similar training to keep up with us." Inuyasha stated factually.

"What do you mean fight Inuyasha?" Kagome said, picking up on his use of the word twice.

"You have each been asked to join our inner circle, as members of it, you are going to be training and preparing to be able to not only help in the functioning of this company, but also be able to fight and defend yourselves and others from threats, both from humans and demons." Inuyasha said, once again in a factual tone.

"What if we don't want to fight?" Rin asked.

"Then you don't have to. You can quit this job at any time, or request a transfer to another placement and work at a desk job." Inuyasha said as they passed the first stop for water. "Let's focus on the run for now and we will talk later." Inuyasha said.

The girls ran for a quite a while, completing the first lap with Inuyasha in just under a half hour. As they passed the entrance Inuyasha spoke for the first time in roughly 20 minutes and gave one more order.

"For this next lap, you can each choose your pace, Finish it on your own and I will be waiting for you at the end." At that, Inuyasha began running at his own pace and left the girls to complete this lap on their own. Kagome and Sango had established a brisk pace and completed their lap in roughly the same time as the first. They had left Ayame and Rin, who didn't have their experience with running long distances.

Kagome and Sango walked out of the track and to the water jug placed just outside the entranceway. Kagome's breathing was pretty ragged and she knew she would be sore tonight. Sango wasn't much better off.

"What a brutal first day. I wonder how long it took Inuyasha to finish his lap?" Sango said, taking small sips of water to avoid getting a cramp.

"I don't know, but I know I lost sight of his lamp almost immediately." Kagome said, copying Sango's drinking form to avoid cramps. They looked over and saw Inuyasha once more sparring, this time with Koga. Koga also wore an identical outfit, though his was black with golden stripes. He was kicking hard at Inuyasha who was practicing blocking the kicks and avoiding them, while they seemed matched, it was obvious that Inuyasha had not been lying about their difference in speed, Koga looked like he could run circles around Inuyasha at the rate he was throwing his kicks, though Inuyasha didn't seem to be getting hurt by any of the blows, and in fact, looked almost calm in the face of the kicks.

"You girls might want to try doing some stretches before your next session." The girls heard a voice say behind them. They turned to see Jinenji at a lifting station doing squats, it looked like he had about 4 large panels on each side, though he wasn't even breathing heavily. "After running 6 miles, a good stretch will keep your muscles from cramping and being sore tonight." The quiet man spoke once more.

"Thank you Jinenji." Kagome said, before sitting on the ground and doing a butterfly stretch, she could feel the tightness in her legs and was not looking forward to tomorrow, she knew no matter what she did, she would still be sore.

"That should help some, but you may still be a little sore tomorrow." Jinenji said to the girls, doing his best to help and knowing what it was like to be sore from training, especially from Inuyasha.

"Thank you again Jinenji, we will do our best." Kagome said, still stretching while Sango was doing her own stretches. They saw Rin come out of the tunnel and make her way to the water cooler; she was covered in sweat and no doubt was tired. Ayame exited the tunnel about a minute later, also looking tired, though not as bad as Rin. Kagome and Sango made their way to the cooler to see how their sisters were doing. "How are you feeling?" Kagome asked.

"Like I got run over by a train, my legs are stiff as hell." Ayame spoke, "Ive always been a horrible runner, Inuyasha is out of his mind if he thinks I am gonna be able to outrun you two." She said taking a small gulp of water, also trying to avoid cramps.

"I am really tired, and am gonna need a hot bath when this is all said and done." Rin said, crouching down and sipping her water.

"Well, that wasn't so bad was it?" Inuyasha asked from behind them, Koga standing next to him and smiling. Inuyasha looked up above the entrance to the running path. "Looks like Kagome and Sango finished sooner than their first lap, Rin was about 3 minutes slower the second lap and Ayame was about 8 minutes slower, not bad for the first run, good job girls." Inuyasha said.

All of the girls looked up to see what he was talking about and were amazed to see what appeared to be a screen with each of their times and names, even Inuyasha's.

"Well, why don't you girls go grab your pistols from the locker room and meet me over at the shooting range, that is where out next session will take place." Inuyasha said and then turned to walk away, "Oh and don't be too long, we have a lot to cover today." He said before quickly jogging off.

"Don't worry girls, tomorrow you will be working with me and I don't intend to be so rough. Good luck with your weapons training." Koga said before heading towards the track to no doubt do some running.

"Awesome." Sango said dryly as she and the other girls walked towards the locker room to retrieve their weapons. The girls retrieved their weapons and returned to the wall, pressing the button Shippo had pushed to open the door and then walking through to the gun range. They saw Inuyasha down in one side of the pit and walked towards him, stepping through a clear glass door and suddenly hearing several shots being fired on the other side of the pit. They stepped through another glass door and the sounds of the shots being fired were almost completely blocked out. They saw Inuyasha standing over a table with several different weapons on it and he was laying out more from a bag on the ground.

He pointed to a bench on the back wall and spoke "Grab a seat on the benches, lay your weapons out on the table and remove the magazines please." Inuyasha spoke quickly and then reached down into his bag, pulling out even more firearms.

The girls walked towards the bench and placed their weapons on the table and removed the magazines. They watched as Inuyasha continued to place weapons on the far table until he put the last one on the table and pulled out a black box before tossing the bag to the side wall and then walking towards them. He placed the black box down and opened it, showing several different kinds of bullets.

"For today we are going to be discussing every part of human weaponry starting from the basic to the advanced. To begin with, here at Taishou Defense, when we say human weaponry, we are talking about only a few things; the first is obviously weaponry, that means several different kind of guns, explosives, and equipment used to support that. The second thing, that will be shown later is human defensive technology, such as body armor, lightweight armor for vehicles and defensive buildings, both long-term and short term. This is my specialty as the Director of Human Weapons. Despite the title, I not only oversee the making of weapons, but also make the armor designed to stop it. Before we begin this lesson, do any of you have any questions?" Inuyasha finished his speech and looked at the girls.

"Yes, I have one." Kagome said looking at her boss. "Do we make guns here? Is that what we do, because I heard you say we are carrying Glock's, why aren't we using a Taishou brand gun?"

Inuyasha looked at Kagome and grinned, "It is actually funny you notice that, the reality is, no we don't make guns. Gun's are made around the world by several companies and they are already well made. We take those gun's and will simply put them together with our armor in such a way as to make it an effective unit. What we actually make here is defensive human weaponry. We take guns from other companies, that we have contracts with, and will outfit them slightly with different technology, such as scopes, laser sites, suppressers, or modified clips, as well as pairing them with other weaponry and armor that make them functionally sound. The armor and equipment is ours, but the guns themselves are of other companies, and we have several contracts with several companies, all of which we can get any kind of gun from. Our belief is figuring out how to best use a weapon, then figuring out how best to defend against that weapon." Inuyasha finished. "Any other questions?"

"No." Kagome said.

"Alright, then let's get started."

Inuyasha then pulled out several different sizes and calibers of bullets and went over them as a whole, discussing their ballistics and damage ratio as well as what the different kind of bullet was used for. He went over everything from .22 calibers for target practice, to .600 nitro express hunting round, to a .50 caliber machine gun round. When all was said and done, the girls had a much more in depth understanding of bullets a whole and knew they would be learning much more as time went on. Inuyasha then showed them how to properly fire their weapons and had them spend the rest of their time training with him firing their side arms and some of the other weapons that he had laid out on the table so that they could see the different kinds of weapons available.

Kagome approached the table and placed her sidearm down before picking up the shotgun. Inuyasha walked over to her and showed her how to load it.

"This gun has a lot of recoil so keep it tight to your shoulder, if you don't, it can really hurt your arm and shoulder." Inuyasha said before taking the gun and showing Kagome how to hold it. Kagome took the gun back and placed it in her shoulder but it wasn't quite right. Inuyasha corrected her and then followed her to the firing range, he watched her put on her goggles and then step into the pit before she lifted the gun and placed it in her shoulder, again low. "Kagome you need to hold it higher up." Inuyasha stepped in behind her and reached around her grabbing the stock of the shotgun in her shoulder, lifting it slightly higher and pulling it in tighter. "Don't tense when you fire, let your shoulder take the blow but keep it tight."

Kagome was red in the face at his proximity and could feel his breath on the nape of her neck, she did hear him, though she didn't comprehend it at first. After a second, she came back to reality and did as he instructed before he stepped back and she took aim and pulled the trigger. To say that the shotgun had kick was an understatement, but her target told her everything she needed to know, she was certain if she had the choice, she would want to use one of these.

After an hour of shooting a wide variety of weapons and all of the girls getting some experience with them Inuyasha finally called the session and spoke once more.

"Alright girls, good job today. I will take care of the clean up here, why don't you all head back to the locker room and grab your things. If any of you want, you can take a shower as well and then meet me back upstairs in the break room." With that Inuyasha began packing up the weapons and the girls headed out of the pit, once more through the glass door before hearing more gunshots being fired on the range. It seemed that those shots never ended. The girls returned to the locker room, grabbed their things and headed upstairs, deciding to take showers at home.

* * *

"What a day." Kagome said.

"Yeah, I am gonna be stiff later tonight." Rin said.

"My arm is killing me from shooting so much." Ayame chimed in.

"I am almost afraid of what tomorrow will hold." Sango added.

"It will be alright, I really do believe what Kaede said. I don't think they will put us through anything we can't handle." Kagome added.

The girls got into the elevator in the main lobby and noticed that despite it being past five in the afternoon, there seemed to be a lot of people in the building, though several were leaving. The girls got on the elevator and saw Shippo running towards them, they held the door and let him on.

"Thanks girls, Floor twelve please." Shippo said slightly out of breath.

"Anything wrong Shippo?" Kagome asked looking at him with concern.

"Not really, just a call that they need me in Cyber Division." Shippo said trying to be casual.

"Ah alright. What is that anyway?" Ayame asked.

"Well, basically we develop computer security systems, it is a booming business and we always get calls that require us to respond quickly." Shippo said.

"But aren't you off work right now? It is past five." Ayame asked.

"Well, technically the work day is over, but I am never off duty. If we get the call and I am needed I come in. Always have." Shippo said.

"How many people are in Cyber Division?" Rin asked.

"About 30 total. We always have someone on call and there are 2 leaders. I happen to be one of the leaders, so If I am in the building, or on the grounds, I am pretty much on call."

"What about if you are at home?" Rin asked.

"Then I come in anyway depending on the severity of the issue." Just then the doors chimed and they were at the twelfth floor. "Well girls, I will see you tomorrow, have a safe night." Shippo said as he exited the elevator and practically ran down the hall.

"That was interesting." Sango said as the doors closed and the elevator moved again.

"Yeah." Rin said. The girls took the rest of the short ride in comfortable silence, lost in their own thoughts. As the elevator chimed at the fifteenth floor and they got off. They walked towards their desks and grabbed their things, placing all of it on their desks and preparing to leave. Then Kagome remembered Inuyasha asked to see them in the break room. She left the others and went to check the break room to see if he was there, she didn't see him so she decided to check his office. She came to the door and knocked lightly.

"Its open." She heard him say from within. She opened the door and saw him standing at a cabinet on the side of his office and he was currently messing with something in it. "Oh hey Kagome, you girls back upstairs?"

"Yeah. We are out at the desks whenever you are ready." Kagome said still looking at the cabinet.

"Alright." He said, closing the cabinet and walking towards her. "Lets go."

They headed out of his office and into the center of the floor. The others looked at Inuyasha and he spoke quickly.

"Well girls, today wasn't bad for your first day, but you all have a lot of improving to do. Tomorrow you will each have an evaluation on your desk of my thoughts where you need to improve. I will not be as kind as I have been today in those eval's. This week we are all going easy on you. Be aware, next week the gloves come off. I will say you are all in a better place than then I expected, but as I said, you all have a long, long way to go." Inuyasha said firmly. "Tomorrow you will be with Koga. All I suggest is that you get a good nights sleep tonight, if you think the physical labor from today was a lot, tomorrow is going to be hell." Inuyasha finished looking at each of the girls in turn. "Good job today and I will see you all tomorrow. Have a good night." With that Inuyasha turned and returned to his office, leaving the girls not sure how to feel.

"I thought we all did alright today." Rin said sounding down.

"He is just being an ass, he is one after all." Kagome said angrily. She didn't know what he expected, but she had hoped that her first impression was wrong, it was obvious now it wasn't, Inuyasha had said all she needed to know, they had all decided to treat them all really nice for the first week, It infuriated her that they thought so little of them. She could also tell by the look on Sango's face, she felt the same.

Right then the bell chimed and Miroku exited the elevator walking towards the girls with a smile.

"Hello ladies, and how did training go?" Miroku asked cheerily

"It went." Was all that Kagome said. Miroku immediately knew something was wrong but decided he would ask Inuyasha what happened, no doubt he had said or done something to upset them, and they had all agreed to go light on the girls this week. 'What did you do now Inuyasha?'

TBC

* * *

Finally another chapter up, Only took a year or so. Hey folks, I am gonna try again to work on this, but I make no promises. I hope you enjoy the new chapter and look for some new material soon.

Chapter 7, Training Continues.


End file.
